This was McKenzie Oerting's boot, she took this photo as a tribute to my One Shoe Diaries and I am posting it as a tribute to her and her spirit that lives on through things like this. Pretty haunting is also the fact I got it sent to me in an email one year ago to the date! On April 15th, they always say the two things you can only count on are death and taxes :( I have added this to the collection as I feel I have ownership, so I dedicate Lost Sole #289 to McKenzie.
I found out today from Linda, the Glove Lady, that a friend of hers whom I had met during her exhibit at the Wentworth Museum died yesterday. Her name was McKenzie Oerting, a very talented artist that succumbed to colon cancer at the age of 54, which seems oddly ironic since she was born in ’54.
When I met McKenzie at the museum she was full of life, so energetic and enthusiastic. Her hair was a bright purple like color and she was wearing a gothic style outfit, complete with big ol’ clunky black leather boots that had to have given her almost 6 inches in height, but she still struck me as little. She just gave off the cool artist persona. I was very impressed with her. She had a style that I can really appreciate and even envy. We gotten to talking and she was very interested in my One Shoe Diaries, and wanted to hear all about it. We clicked on an artist level, but both Sharon and I loved her spirit. We agreed we were all to hang out sometime together. But we never did :(
It was later that evening after leaving the Museum that I found out McKenzie was ill and may not make it much longer. I was devastated. How could someone so vibrant be dying? The next day, linda sent me a photo that McKenzie had taken after speaking with me that night. It was a shot of one those great boots she was wearing all by itself lying on the floor. The photo hit a sad and poetic note with me, much more than she would have thought. Inside I knew, that photo would become a tribute to her, to symbolize her leaving this world and leaving an impression as big and as unique as that boot.
Well the time has come. I hereby officially dedicate that photo to her memory, although I did not take it, I feel I am its keeper. And while it was not an official lost sole as I did not take the shot and the shot was staged, I am now giving it a number, Lost Sole #289. I believe it has earned its right to be in my collection.
Upon getting the email about her passing from Linda I followed the link in the email to an article about McKenzie. Which I copy and pasted at the end of this entry for anyone to read more about her, perhaps to help her live on as it was a very good article, written by a friend of hers. Something I noticed was the link to Mckenzie’s MySpace page. I began thinking about the phenomenon of MySpace and other websites like it that become haunting voices from beyond almost. It was her title that she had posted on the page that captured her spirit the most in my opinion. At the top of the page were the words “The Purple-Haired, Pixie-Sized artist.” I wonder if she had any idea when she created that page and typed those words what they would someday be read after she passed by so many people, and how meaningful they would be? I cannot help to have my thoughts wander to thinking about if my profiles will ever be viewed like that :(
I began then thinking about how you can learn about a person so much from their profile information, and how many things you shared in common. it made me sad seeing her profile. Like I was seeing something very personal. But I could see how it could be comforting as well for people close to her. It makes it seem like she has not really left. You can almost hear her voice and see her face in the words she wrote there. Where ever McKenzie is, I hope she can see all the people that remember her, and think of her fondly. Perhaps our little Noah can help ease her pain as she transfers into a new life.
Artist McKenzie Oerting dies of colon cancer at 54
April 12, 2009 01:10 PM EDT
Obit was written by McKenzie’s beloved friend Margaret Warren, another wonderful artist and friend of mine also)
Katherine Janet “McKenzie” Oerting passed away April 11, 2009 at 4:52 p.m. after a 4 year struggle with cancer.
McKenzie was born November, 18 1954 in Pensacola, Florida. Her family is of Danish Ancestry and operated the McKenzie Oerting Ship’s Chandlery and Marine Supply in Pensacola over 100 years ago. In the late 1980’s, she adopted the nickname “McKenzie” and used it as her business name.
Affectionately known as the “purple haired chick”, McKenzie was a very talented artist, well known by her work in all styles – painting, photography, sculpture and mixed media. She exhibited and won awards regularly in local and regional venues. She stayed very active in the art community throughout her long illness and has work displayed this month at the Arts and Design Society’s Southeast Regional Exhibition at Northwest Florida State College and in the University of Mobile Regional Art Exhibition in Mobile, AL.
McKenzie served on the Board of Directors for Artel Gallery as Special Projects Coordinator. She juried art shows regularly, conducted workshops and gave lectures on the arts and was active with the Pensacola Museum of Art and with the Arts and Design Society of Fort Walton Beach.
She was a mentor and inspiration to all artists in her community and much beloved.
She was also active in sailing and the Pensacola Yacht Club community and owned and operated McKenzie Oerting Marine Graphics for a number of years.
McKenzie first studied art at Pensacola Junior College, then the California College of Arts in Oakland, CA and finally at the University of Houston where she graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor of fine arts in graphic communications and illustration.
Mckenzie is survived by her mother, Anne Oerting, father, John Oerting, two brothers, Richard and David Oerting, sister-in-law, Lisa Oerting, nephew, John Michael Oerting, Aunt Rosemary Davis, Cousin Martin Baer and Petra Lattman, Aunt Loulee Shaw, and her particular friend and companion Robert Noguere and many other devoted artists and friends.
McKenzie and I have known each other since my arrival in Pensacola 6 years ago. We spent many a time doing art together as well as times posing for each other’s art. She fought bravely to survive, but passed on last night. I can’t wait to see what part of the universe she gets to paint in the afterlife. I for one will constantly be looking for that touch of McKenzie. I’ll post a photo of her later, once I can find that disk it’s on, in the meantime, check out her myspace page to see some of her work and listen the the song that so beautifully sums up her.