I forever see you floating out to sea
Like a hand-constructed paper doll
You made from one of your collages
And tossed onto the water yourself,
So beautiful and sad, Ray
Letting your life slip into the murk of Sag Harbor
Your final performance piece,
Ending your artful artifice
With no one to watch but you.

During the past couple of days I’ve been thinking about Ray Johnson, who was immortalized in the documentary How to Draw a Bunny. Ray not only blurred the lines between art and life, he obliterated them in a very cool, understated way. Once he made the decision to make his life a work of art, he never got out of character, not once. Everything he did was artifice. Even his death was staged, but he told no one. Johnson left so many beautiful things behind and acted in such strange (almost prescient) ways, that those who knew him were forever altered.