Last night I had this opening at Pierogi in Brooklyn. It was a fun night. I was totally pleased by the turnout. I had some great conversations but the one that stands out the most, of course, was with the biggest crack pot who came into the gallery last night.
I had made a drawing in which I wrote about what a terrible person that I feared that I would become, if I ever got any attention for being an artist. My ego would make me totally unpleasant. I went on to ask if all artists act like monsters, as I do, when ever things start to go their way. I questioned how horrible it would be if Hitler had ever gotten into art school... And if Dick Cheney had been an artist and had success? Total fucking jerk. He would have forced all artists to follow some insane Donald Judd- like rules or we would all be waterboarded. I suggested that I had some remote hope for mankind in that I had seen some really good paintings by Winston Churchill, and he seemed to have bucked the trend because I had heard that he was actually a pretty good leader.
Well, this crackpot who came my show practically got into exchanging blows with me because it turns out that I was glorifying Churchill, who this guy says was a war criminal. This guy was an old Eastern European guy (based on his accent) and he started to come after me for being totally insulting and naive in my story.
Fuck, I did actually wish I had been drinking alcohol at that moment in time as I wanted to have a bracer to deal with this guy.
Look,
it was a really fun time last night. I just can't believe that this nut job happens to have said the one thing that I can't seem to get out of my brain from all the good stuff that I heard. Normally this wouldn't be so bad.Maybe something to chew on too write a story about later. But the only problem is that his comments seemed so ridiculous and off the wall that I can't even get to write about it them and sound like I am telling a story that anyone will actually ever believe ever could really have happened.
DK
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5 comments:
It's always the assholes who leave the biggest impressions. Looking forward to seeing your show. Congratulations, David.
Let it go Kramer: it's our fault. When we found out we couldn't come to the opening, we tried to send a stripper. They were all out of cops and sexy fireman and all we could arrange for was a grumpy Eastern European. He was supposed to offer you a bratwurst, not question your work. We want our money back.
Hi David! I've been trying to send you an email but it keeps getting bounced back to me. Did your address change??
Bethany
Of course artists get unpleasant when they sniff a little bit of their own success!!!... we're mostly very insecure (not all, but the emotionally "stabile" artist is rare in my experience), and any kind of change-positive or negative- can easily tip the balance. Even witnessing the transformation can itself be VERY disorienting.
Cheers,
Jennifer c. Protas
Just focus on your good fortune on having a show. Forget the jerk.
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