Tuesday, August 6, 2013

"I Went Through All Kinds Of Changes, Took A Look At Myself And Said, "That's Not Me!"


Change is good?

I'm told, by a friend, that today is Andy Warhol's birthday. Every time I think of him I think of two things... besides his art, of course. One is when Hurricane Gustav barrelled down on Louisiana and we grabbed mom and headed north. Well, actually, more east than north and "refugeed" in Troy, Alabama. It is a cute, little college town with not much going on except an Andy Warhol retrospective of his print works.

It was actually a very good show at a really nice museum/ art gallery.

The other, was when I went to New York, years ago, to attend a wedding and visit friends. I went through great lengths to track down one of my teachers from ACCD, and when I found him, we went to a SoHo restaurant for dinner. The odd part was that his normal black hair was white and combed like Warhol's. He always seemed to wear black, so that wasn't a big deal. What was kinda disturbing was that he looked a lot like Andy... especially from a distance.

We had a great time together just catching up, but I remember thinking as I returned to LA...

"Why can't artists just be normal and let their art speak for themselves!"

It's a very conservative and uneducated statement. I remember kinda losing myself in my seventh semester. I just felt I was a runaway train going nowhere. I needed an anchor, of sorts. I kinda always have needed one. I remember when I was in grade school, on picture day, we all had to wear suits and ties. Something about getting all dressed up made me feel special, important and "professional."

Even as a kid. It made me a more attentive student... I never knew why, but it did, if only for one day!

So, I decided to come to an illustrative class dressed up sans the tie. I also combed my red hair with a part to the side. In the class, who knows what my classmates thought, but Penelope Gottleib remarked about it.

"How come you've combed your hair differently?"she asked.

"I searching for who I really was or wanted to be. I didn't care to go into all of the ramifications of my psyche with Penny, so I replied that I felt I needed to change my direction.

Then I asked her, " What'dya think? You like it?"

She replied," I don't know... it IS a bit different!"

And that's how I felt when I visited Baron and that's what I think of whenever I think of Andy Warhol. Funny, how the mind works!
Copyright 2013/Ben Bensen III

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