ART: IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER #1

Art has always been a passion of mine. And while I have many different reasons for loving it, I have never been able to sum it up in any kind of general explanation. In simplistic terms: someone had an idea and followed through with it, it’s unique, I like it. That’s pretty much it. It brings me joy – plain and simple. I have been meaning to document my art for prosperity and to share with others, so here goes. Bits and Pieces. This might take awhile…

A SWISH FOR DORIS



This was the second
Michalopoulos painting I bought, so I am not sure why I am starting with this one. I purchased this one around 1995 – 1996. I had just finished paying off my first Michalopoulos painting and was anxious for another. Not seeing anything I liked in the gallery, the gallery director (who I had grown close to from showing up every week with my payments) let me go in the back storage and rummage through the paintings. I chose, “A Swish for Doris.” At the time, I didn’t know the name of the painting. It wasn’t until Michalopoulos’s first book came and I was flipping through it that I discovered its name. The feeling was surreal. My whole life devouring art books, and here something I owned was actually in one. I think my exact thought was, “Holy shit!” I’ll never forget that moment.



I like this painting on many levels. One: straight-up nostalgia factor. I learned how to drive on a 1964 Ford Fairlane (and it is still at my parents’ house waiting for me to reclaim it). There is something so sexy (you can really stretch out in them) and so freeing about cars of that era. What has always attracted me to Michalopoulos’s paintings is his sense of movement. Everything flows without being intrusive. Although the woman’s face in the painting is not really defined, you can tell she is out for an adventure. Independent and free – Where is she going with the top down in the middle of the night?






But the star of the picture is, of course, the car. It seems to match the general theme of liberty and latitude. I can’t think of any modern car that seems to buzz, “Drive me, please!”



And this one does. It’s a favorite.

Imagine my consummate delight to open up this month’s issue of “Metropolitan Home” and find a small article about the new bridge in Paris, “The Pont Simone de Beauvoir” named after, of course, the existentialist feminist writer, Simone de Beauvoir. In a city with the most river bridges in the world, it is their first bridge named for a woman. Yay! I read it looks like a bra that’s been flung on the floor…. not sure how exactly I feel about that (being someone who bolsters for brasseries … but the bridge is beautiful). What surprised me was that it actually opened in July 2006. How could I have not known for so long? How come a bridge named after a French female philosopher that looks like a discarded “soutien-gorge” didn’t make front-page news? Oh, the tragedy. I weep big tears over my demi-cup.

But, I will tell you what launch I was aware of – Star Wars stamps! Yes, I was anxiously waiting to stick Princess Leia on a card or student-loan bill. The surge of power. Efflux of efficacy! Deluge of dynamism. So to say that I was more than mildly disappointed at the scene they chose to depict Princess Leia is an understatement. Feeding an SOS message into R2-D2? How many opportunities did they have to portray her as the true badass she is? Standing up to Darth Vadar. Blowing away storm troopers, busting into Jabba the Hutt’s fortress (before she was forced to wear that slave girl outfit). Damn-it, George! Han got a blaster!

Sigh…..

Yet, the link between Simone and Leia is uncanny. Both revolutionary thinkers ahead of their time. One had a bridge named after her, one swung across one. Simone is routinely known as the Ambassadress of Existentialists; Leia was the Chief of State of the New Republic Jedi Knight. Do you see what I am getting at? Existentialism is a philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe (Leia captured in the middle of the universe on her ship, where she was actually acting as a spy for the Rebellion). Existentialism regards human existence as unexplainable (The Force), and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's actions (Ah, those rebels knew what they are getting into).

And do I even have to point out the eerily connections between Han Solo and Jean-Paul Sartre? They are practically twins.

So in honor of the new Paris bridge, here is a brief quiz.

Who said it - Beauvoir or Organa?

Think carefully.

Take your time. (See answers below).


1. I don’t know who you are or where you came from, but from now on you’ll do as I say, okay?

2. I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom.

3. One is not born a woman, one becomes one.

4. Well, I guess you don’t know everything about women yet.

5. Sex pleasure in woman is a kind of magic spell; it demands complete abandon; if words or movements oppose the magic of caresses, the spell is broken.

6. It only takes one to sound the alarm.

7. I am not a committee!




1. Organa
2. Beauvoir
3. Beauvoir
4. Organa
5. Beauvoir
6. Organa
7. Organa


You know what? I could go on and on…
But I just have to stop myself.