Meeting artists

[daughter]

I was thinking about the thread on do we collect art and the threads we've had about our reading habits.

While I'm not impressed with celebrity status, I have been moved by being in the presence of artists I admire. I have met a few in my day. Fortunately for me not one was stand-offish. I have met celebrities, Nicholas Cage, singer Anita Baker, Gino Vanelli, Marvin Gaye, William Ballad.

But the real thrill has been meeting authors and poets. I heard and met Nikki Giovanni my freshman year in college. I've met Merle Collins, Paul Edgar Wideman, Sonia Sanchez, Gloria Naylor, Susan Taylor. I love book signings and lectures.


What art moves you most? Do you support one, in what way? Have you met any artists you admire?

This isn't about name dropping, but to talk about the positive experiences you've had meeting the artists you admire.

Peace,

daughter

 

[riff]

Poems. Before all else, Poems.

Film and Literature tied for next.

Painting

Music

And then all of that art that we take for granted (the most beautiful of all) LIFE!

 

[riff]

And daughter, I have read some of your work and look forward to reading more and writing about if only I can get my ass to the poetry board, but I am so damned silly sometimes.

 

[on_the_verge]

Daughter,

I do not have any famous artist to add to a collection. I am surrounded by creative people daily from my job, working for a large cosmetics company to my friends who embrace their creative inner soul. I lived with a painter for three years and she has been my inspiration and confident between the sheets during our relationship. Her sense of life is inviting and she sheds her inner soul like a young child with the knowledge that forms and shapes are not only recognizable, but abstract within her and the very worlds that surrounds her. I have three paintings of hers, one a Valentine's day present she painted for our exuberant and blissful love, the other two as exchanges from our split. Four years later we keep in touch. I was actually at her studio and home, my former dwelling and the loft still evokes and embraces my presence, even after so many years. (Damn, my hands feel more tactile on the keyboard after a manicure!) I was at the loft last week and she desires a website to be created to reach out in to cyberspace and cull others to see her work and hopeful broaden her presence and scope. She is very much departed from computers, save for the lap top I bought her, but it's another medium and she wishes others to see her work and become more touched by her inner creations.

 

[La Huesera]

Two nights ago I met the photographer Jerry Uelsmann. From the little time that I spent with him, I could tell that he is one of those people that are truly nice... he also has a very quick humor. He spent an hour and a half after his presentation signing posters and books and did not seem to mind at all answering questions.

 

[sch00lteacher]

I got to meet and speak with one of my favorite authors, Tom Clancy.

He was a guest speaker at our college. I was very impressed in how ordinary he was. I mean I guess i was expecting a god or something.

Afterward the speech I had the chance to share a few private moments with him. He is a bit of a dork. But he really can write. I love his stuff.

Many many moons ago, I met The Duke. John Wayne. Wow. You gotta be an old fart to appreciate what John Wayne was for us. He was the man. He was the hero. No one else came close. *heavy sigh*

 

[Black_Bird]

Music is the art that first most comes to mind for me. My step father raised me on classic rock - I have the stuff in my veins.

Second to that is ritual. Most don't concider ritual to be an art form, but those who have seen a well done catholic mass in the original Latin know the power of ritual.

 

[SilverVeil]

I have met a few celebrities in my time. I had a dream come true when I was able to meet an artist who's fantasy art I have loved for a long time. He has won several prestigious ( sp ? ) awards and has done some work on a new popular movie recently.

I am sorry to say that now I am spending some time around the man, he is really egotistical and very self centered. He is outspoken about a number fo things, yet has nothing of any real substance to offer.

I wish I had stayed in ignorance of his true self.

If you read science fiction/fantasy you have seen this guys work. He has even had 2 or 4 books come out just about his art.

 

[Hamletmaschine]

Because I've worked in theatre/performance for twenty years or so, both in and out of academia, I guess my answer to the 'what moves you?' question is fairly self-evident: Theatre and performance art.

I have a few friends whose names would be familiar to people here, and I've met a host of other celebs/stars from that world--as well as many other actors, directors, theatre artists who are not exactly 'celebs' but most certainly gifted artists.

It is unfortunate that so many of them are seen by the general public as flakes, or as being difficult to work with, etc. I have found most of them to be kind and generous--just plain folks, really--who are rather timid and humble, with the same insecurities as anyone else. Theatre/performance are collaborative arts, and when you have a group of artists working hard together to create something, things can get tense and even explosive. Unfortunately, those stories are what sell tabloids.

~H~