Interesting that we had common aspirations. My excuse is Viet Nam. Although I was fortunate to serve in Europe rather than the far east, I was, nonethess about to be drafted in 1966. At that time, I was living in Fresno, CA and working whatever menial jobs I could get (unemployment in central CA was brutal at that time), but I was also doing some painting. My sister still has a couple of mine hanging on her wall. Yes, I had a scrawny goatee at the time:
http://chevyasylum.com/earlydaze/Welcome.htmlI think I've described the experiences I had during basic training at Ft. Polk, LA on this list recently (I know I wrote about 'em, I just don't remember where the emails went...Watershed Aphasia [pump head memory damage] strikes again.) In any case, when I left that Gawd-forsaken state and got to Ft. Bliss at El Paso, TX, I thought I'd gone to heaven. The training regimen there was sorta like being in a private school rather than a...well...army camp. :) I tried to get back into oil painting, but couldn't get my head into it. Might have been the fact that I was wearing green, baggy clothes. :) I spose my time in Morocco could be considered somewhat like the Village...at least I hung out with (and became one of) the Marrakesh freaks. Then I came back to the states, got married and tried to live a somewhat "normal" life. I think that's what it was. The only thing I know about "normal" is that it's a setting on my washing machine.
While in the army, I discovered photography and after retirement, I chose to follow that path. I'm still on it...I think. :)
They tell me that life is what happens when yer making other plans. I spose that's what happened to most of us.
r On 10/20/2011 5:28 PM, Mary McCarthy wrote:
I was never a Warhol fan. Maybe if I understood it better. He just took ordinary objects and decorated. When we were in Pittsburgh our hotel was right across the street from the Warhol museum (which lends one to wonder what Andy would have thought of that) but no time to go.I like Mondrian,too. Simple but effective.Yeah, I had those Village dreams too. Suzanne and I were going to live in the village. I would be the artist and she would be a physical therapist. Unfortunately we grew up. What's your excuse?<G> MIf ya think Frank Stella is a crayon artist, then how about Andy Warhol?(I've stripped the paint off model cars that had better paint jobs than Warhol's back in the day when I built 'em.)Then there's Jack the Dripper (Jackson Pollock), Kandinsky and a few others.I DO like some of the nonrepresentational art: Mondrian, Joan Miro (I'm too lazy to add the accents to the vowels) and some others that don't try to rip yer eyeballs out. I remember when I first discovered Mondrian's work. I was about 14 and wanted more than anything to be a beatnik, hang out at coffee houses (ignoring the fact that I was living on Ogden, Utah and the coffee houses I'd read about were in Greenwich Village), grow a goatee, play bongos and paint in Mondrian's Neo-Plasticism style:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Mondrian Well, I have the goatee. :) But Mondrian's work still appeals to me: So much for Art History 101, huh? :) r(I also had aspirations of getting a doctorate in art history...but that was in my drinking days and....)On 10/20/2011 4:33 PM, Mary McCarthy wrote:I don't mean to be rude to another artist, but it looks like the Bimmer was colored with crayons.Here's a followup to the Bimmer art car (originally owned by Peter Gregg.)http://www.gtspirit.com/2011/10/11/bmw-m1-art-car-acquired-by-bmw-dealer/Here's the original story. I didn't know Gregg had committed suicide. Interesting story.http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/10/tragic-racers-bmw-m1-art-car-heads-to-pebble-beach-auction/
