Actor, now Beat-inspired artist Leo Fitzpatrick (L) with photographer Ryan McGinley (R), holding up Leo’s zine of work

Anyone remember scrapbooks? Well before the age of the Internet, kids used to cut out photos, make captions from letters, and paste them into paper books like automatic memorabilia. I’d bet Leo Fitzpatrick — the actor who stumbled on the screen in Kids after being discovered as a downtown skateboarder by director Larry Clark — stashed some things away in his youth.

Now, at thirty-one, he tells me, “I was inspired by the Beat poets,” as we’re looking at his recent show of captions paired with other captions and/or photos that Fitzpatrick put together and framed. “I did about eighty of these.” He tells me. His girlfriend, Sophomore designer Chrissie Miller, who is standing nearby, laughs to concur. I tell them she should use some of Fitzpatrick’s art as logos for her t-shirt line.

The show, basic in principle and execution, promotes a lot of chuckles for the irony of it alone. It’s like the minimal carpenter’s version of what Fitzpatrick’s friend, photographer Ryan McGinley does, most recently photographing stars of the Winter Olympics, dressed in Rodarte for the New York Times. Both projects strike me as parallel in a sense since Fitzpatrick’s captions and photos don’t really belong together and neither do Olympic skiers wearing Rodarte almost couture.

Thus, is the beauty of the American Dream.

(Leo Fitzpatrick, up until March 13th, at the Half Gallery on 208 Forsythe Street, NYC.)