This is the text from the piece “To All People” by John Liebrand


TO ALL PEOPLE:
John Liebrand
704 N. Austin
Oak Park, Illinois
What do people need the most?
Is there anything artists can do to help
people or is art not really a helping profession?
Should I quite being an artist?
What do people need the most?
What do you need? What do you want?
I want to be the best friend you ever had. I want to be on an ethical level that will make me sure that I wouldn't hurt you for anything in the world. I already care about you a lot. Sometimes I’m selfish. Sometimes I think about myself, especially in my dreams. I try real hard everyday not to be selfish and to not be nice to other people just to get some kind of reward for myself. Every night I try real hard to treat the people in my dreams with compassion and respect because dreams are expressions of wish fulfillment and when you dream ill of someone its just as bad as doing it when you're awake.

I have killed in my dreams. These people deserve compensation and I will somehow find a way to provide it. I BELIEVE THERE IS SUCH A THING AS WRONG AND RIGHT! There’s a low road and a high right and both roads get you to the same place in pretty much the same period of time. Ultimately it makes no difference so we might as well take the high road. I think sometimes maybe I care too much. I think I do bad things, but they are almost always done for others rather than myself. I do not expect any punishment for myself. I profit from nothing.
I am willing to help you out in any way.
I AM ABSOLUTELY DEAD SERIOUS.
I want very much to somehow make a
REAL CONTRIBUTION.
My art heals NOBODY and neither does yours.
Broken lives won’t be mended by “pieces.”
“Performance art” is the weakest of the mediums. The most pathetic. The one constant of all this is no one is asking us to do this stuff and certainly no one is paying us for it.

Please take this personally
I want to give you what you need. If you need anything - labor, paintings, “some new concept,” or just someone to talk to, I want you to feel free to call me (443-3782)