Solomon's Castle

The saying goes that a man's home is his castle.   This certainly applies to Howard Solomon, creator of Solomon's Castle in Ona, Florida.  Trust me when I say that this destination is unlike any other.   You truly have to see it to believe it.

Solomon never comes upon a discarded item that he doesn't like.  His castle--and most of the art in it--is created from recycled materials.  The exterior of the building is made from aluminum offset printing press plates.  The interior is filled with odd little creations made of things like beer cans and oil drums, and most have puns associated with them that will make you groan out loud.   Take, for instance, "Coming or Going."  Solomon made the car out of beer cans during his "drinking period."  (Just to hit you over the head here, this seems to be a reference to Picasso's Blue or Rose Period.  Collective groan.)  The name comes from the fact that there is a steering wheel in each side of the car.  Our guide noted that this eliminates the opportunity for a passenger to be a backseat driver.  Ba-da-dum.

There are dozens of sculptures throughout the Castle made primarily from discarded car parts and related items.  This work is entitled "Christopher Colombo:  Discovering Crime."  (I actually kind of liked this piece, but I'm a fan of detective shows from way back.)  Another sculpture in the collection is a cow whose body is made out of an oil can with a hole in the center.  Guess what kind of milk you get from it?  (For those of you whose brains aren't firing on all cylinders at the moment, the answer is whole milk.    Another collective groan seems in order.)

Just when you think you can't take it anymore, you come upon a work that shows that Solomon actually has some talent in addition to a truly odd sense of humor.  Solomon spent over 300 hours creating this giant elephant sculpture which he calls "Jeb the Bush Man."  (It was made during an election year.)

It was about this time in the tour that I started feeling a bit frustrated that the guide's job consisted of reciting a script written by Solomon as we walked through the rooms. We were told what some of the works are made of (the materials for the elephant include oil drums and sea shells) and the names of the works so that we didn't miss the puns.   There wasn't much room for questions, though, or any sort of dialogue about what you were seeing.  Nor did we get the opportunity to linger and study the things that interested us, like the the wooden montage of Modigliani's Portrait of a Woman with a Hat.  This montage was one of several Modigliani-inspired works and is a prime example of a piece I would have loved to have known more about.  What are these beautiful montages doing in the midst of all the pun-inspired sculptures?   Why Modigliani, who happens to be one of my favorite artists?  Unfortunately, I knew that if I asked, I wouldn't get a straight answer since the question was not part of the script.

The whole place is full of surprises, but perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that Solomon and his wife Peggy actually live in the Castle.  We toured their living room and kitchen, and there is no respite from Howard's creativity. The windows in the kitchen are made of stained glass with images of the various arts and are quite well-done.  (Again, Solomon's talent emerges in the midst of all the kitsch.) The Castle's tower also features stained glass windows, this time with the theme of  nursery rhymes.  I particularly like this homage to "Hickory, Dickory, Dock."

 Once the tour was over, Maggie and I retreated to the Boat on the Moat for lunch to muse over what we had seen.  We mostly just shook our heads as we tried to figure out how--and why--such a place came into existence.   It was quite an outing, though, and certainly not the type of place that you can experience just anywhere.  If you do venture to the Castle, don't miss the homemade walnut pie.  Even if you don't enjoy the art and the puns, it makes the trip worthwhile.    

Having a Heart for Literacy

If I were being honest, I'd have to admit that sometimes I am less than wholly enthusiastic about the thought of going in to work at the Adult Learning Center.  Then I get there and see how hard the students are working to make better lives for themselves and it's all worth it.  How could I not love seeing "Pops", the 65+ year old custodian working to get his degree so that he can become a minister, or Silvia, a long-time student who has progressed from barely speaking English to knowing grammar rules cold?

The Center is holding a fundraiser next month to raise money for our tuition hardship assistance fund.  I was telling Florida Weekly editor Kathy Grey about the fundraiser and some of our students who recently obtained their GEDs, and she said suggested that it might be a good time for the paper to run an article about adult literacy issues in our community.   I put something together and thought I'd share it here.   (For the record, it is MUCH harder to write an article like this than my usual blog post of "I did this.  It was fun." )   Let me know if you're interested in supporting our cause!  

HAVE A HEART FOR LITERACY FUNDRAISER HIGHLIGHTS ADULT EDUCATION IN CHARLOTTE COUNTY

Every day, our lives cross paths with dozens of people.  Statistically, one out of five of those individuals is functionally illiterate, meaning that they don't have the reading, writing, math, and computer skills necessary to succeed in today’s world.  The cost of illiteracy is high on both an individual and societal level.   According to statistics compiled by the Florida Literacy Coalition, on average, workers who didn’t graduate from high school earn 42% less than employees with a diploma.   Almost half of adults on welfare lack a high school diploma.  And welfare recipients without an education are much more likely to perpetuate the cycle of poverty.

Given the relationship between education and employability, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that many adult education programs receive funding through grants made under the Workforce Investment Act.   The Adult Learning Center, the adult education arm of the Charlotte County Public School System, is no exception. As a result, the Center strives not only to teach its students the three “R”s but also to provide the tools necessary for success in today’s job market.  Leslie Isley, lead instructor, says, “What we seek to do is provide the critical bridge between knowledge and employment.  We try to lay down the foundation of that bridge by providing pre-employment training, computer basics, and contextualized vocabulary.” 

Many of the Center’s students have focused on health care as a potential career path.  Becoming a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) is often the first step on that journey.  In response to this interest, the Center developed a year-long class whose curriculum teaches students the vocabulary and concepts necessary to successfully participate in a CNA program.   The Center is also offering “I Am Job Ready” workshops to help students develop the interpersonal skills required to obtain and retain a job, including interview preparation and workplace conflict resolution.

When you look at the price of illiteracy, it seems like a problem that warrants redress purely on the basis of the economics.  It costs approximately $1200 to educate an adult learner for one year; cash assistance and food stamps for a family of four on welfare runs over $12,000.  But when you meet some of the students and put a face to the issue, you begin to understand the real value of adult education.  

Adult Learning Center student YvRose Smith’s story is representative of that of many adult learners.  Smith came to the United States from Haiti when she was 17.  She learned to speak English and supported herself by working as a CNA, often holding down three jobs at a time.  In 2005, Smith suffered an on-the-job injury and, at the age of 54, found herself unable to continue to work as a CNA.   With the equivalent of a fourth grade education, Smith’s options were limited.  Smith enrolled as a student at the Center, rolled up her sleeves and got to work.  Over the years, Smith utilized every resource that the Center offers, taking classes, working independently in the learning lab and studying online.  Working to obtain her Graduate Equivalency Degree (GED) became Smith’s new job.  On more than one occasion, people asked her if she had a bed at the school! Two years ago, YvRose was matched with volunteer tutor Terri Jackman.  By that time, YvRose was close to passing the GED.  Working with a tutor helped get her cross the finish line.  At age 61, Smith is applying to LPN programs, hoping to fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming a nurse.

Student Justin Sullivan is another Adult Learning Center success story.  Sullivan dropped out of high school when he was a sophomore to support his family.  He worked in the construction industry until he lost his job in 2010.   He soon realized that he could not wait around for the housing market to pick up and that if he wanted a job with a future, the first step was to get his high school diploma.   Sullivan became a student at the Center and put his nose to the grindstone, often studying six hours a day before going home to care for his teen-age daughter.  After eight months, he passed his GED, and he is now enrolled in the computer systems technology program at Charlotte Technical Center. 

In 2012, the Florida Legislature imposed a tuition requirement to offset the costs of adult education programs that receive state funding.  Annual tuition is $90 for students who have been residents of Florida for at least one year.   To many people, this is the cost of a nice evening out.  For many of the Center’s students, however, finding this extra money is a hardship.  Enrollment at the Center plunged by nearly 40%, and the Center’s administrators realized that if they couldn’t find the funds to provide tuition assistance to their students, they might have to close their doors.  (The Center receives monies from the State based on the test results of their students.  Fewer students mean fewer educational gains, which translates into lower funding.)  They turned to the obvious—chocolate!  In 2012, the Center held a Chocolate Festival and raised over $5,000.  These funds permitted the Center to provide tuition assistance to more than 115 students who otherwise would not have been able to continue their studies.  

This year, the event has segued into the Have a Heart for Literacy campaign.  The idea behind this fundraiser is simple.  For a donation of $10 or more, participants will receive a box of chocolate treats as a thank you for supporting the Center's tuition hardship assistance program.  Charlotte Technical Center’s Culinary Arts program will be preparing some of the goodies.  (Their margarita truffles were a big hit at last year’s Chocolate Festival.)  The boxes of treats will be delivered on February 13 to pick-up locations across the County, including the Port Charlotte Town Center Mall and Florida Gulf Coast University in Punta Gorda.    

An old adage says, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for one day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”   Adult education programs like those provided by the Adult Learning Center seek to teach their students to fish in the sea of life.    

Biking Webb Lake with IYC

What month is it again?  As if it weren't hard enough to figure out the day of the week in my semi-retired existence, I also have to remember that the fact that it's 75 degrees and sunny doesn't mean that it's a nice summer day!  The first year that I lived in Punta Gorda, January was brutally cold.  Yes, I'm talking a stretch of cold weather where the mercury registered in the 50s and even--shudder--the 40s on occasion.  Outside plans were put on hold, and residents with fireplaces delighted in the opportunity to use them.

Leaders Diana and Joe Lehr

With the memory of such extreme weather in mind, the organizers of the monthly IYC bike ride have selected Webb Lake for our January outing the last two years.  Babcock Webb Wildlife Management area is a short drive from Punta Gorda and offers a variety of activities, from hiking and biking to fishing to shooting.  (In fact, on the day of our ride, you could hear shots in the distant background.   I was happy to have a good amount of distance between us and the shooting range.)  Last year we saw plein air artists out painting by the lake. Our ride was an easy ten miles on paved road--five miles out and five miles back, and it's relatively sheltered in the event of cooler weather conditions.  Perfect for bikers of all levels.

Our group consisted of nearly 30 bikers (some of our group is camera shy).  One great thing about this ride is that you don't have to worry about traffic or pedestrians so you can just bike and chat and enjoy the day.  Many of the riders participate in the weekly bike to breakfast on Saturdays, but there were some additions to our group of people who don't fancy getting out of bed at 6:30 to ride, even with the promise of pork fat when you reach your destination.  I always come away from these outings with some little tidbit to file away, whether it's a book recommendation or an outing or a travel destination.  On this outing I particularly enjoyed comparing notes with fellow symphony-goers about the amazing performance of the Charlotte Symphony the prior week-end.  (I wish I could turn back the clock and experience it all over again!)

Of course there's no risk of actually ending up in a calorie deficit when you do one of these rides since there is always a meal involved.  After our ride, we headed to Burnt Store Grill for some sustenance and more conversation.   It's hard to imagine a more pleasant way to start off my week--and all I had to do was sign up and show up!  The time will come when I have to take my turn and plan one of these adventures, but for now I'm enjoying just having the opportunities turn up in my mailbox in my missives from IYC.  Thanks to Diana and Joe Lehr for organizing this ride and to all of the people who volunteer to organize the activities that make IYC such a fun place to be.

Wardell Wows Charlotte Symphony Audience

Last December, patrons of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra were treated to a holiday pops concert led by guest conductor Matthew Wardell.  It was an incredibly fun night of music with the CSO at its best and, when combined with Wardell's easy rapport with the audience, it was clear that he would be a serious contender for the position of maestro and music director of the CSO.  The question, though, was whether Wardell could successfully conduct the CSO in a classical concert. The answer is a resounding "yes."

Saturday night's concert was entitled "Elements of Music:  Earth, Water, Wind, and Fire."  Wardell explained in the pre-concert lecture with Katherine Caldwell that he wanted to harness the elemental power of music in one concert.  All of the pieces in the evening's repertoire told stories that provided "extra-musical content" for the audience to connect with as they listened.  In Wardell's view, knowing the stories behind the music is like having subtitles in a foreign film.  If you watch a French film and don't know the language, you might still enjoy the action and the scenery, but your experience will be less powerful than if you could follow along as the plot develops.  Wardell feels strongly that letting the audience in on the back story is an important part of his job, and the concert was much richer as a result.

The concert kicked off with Liszt's Totenkanz (Dance of Death) featuring guest pianist Darren Matias. It is difficult to imagine a more thrilling piece of music.  It was dramatic and unexpected and exciting.  I found myself on the edge of my seat in eager anticipation of what would come next.  Matias attacked the piano with a passion and virtuosity that left the audience breathless. (Comments from the audience included, "He's a wild man!"  "What a phenomenal individual."  "I've never heard anything like this before.")  The conversation between the piano and the rest of the instruments was nothing short of amazing, and when the piece ended, the audience gave a thunderous standing ovation and a chorus of "bravos."  Matias came back for a mid-concert encore, playing Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (from Tom & Jerry fame), which led to a second standing ovation.  The evening was off to an amazing start.

Next up was Dvorak's The Water Goblin, Opus 107.  Wardell both told the audience the story behind the music and introduced the instruments that would be playing different roles during the piece.  (He compared it to Peter and the Wolf for "really smart wolves.")  The inspiration for the music was a Czech fairy tale about a mother who has a premonition that her daughter will be in danger if she goes to a nearby lake.  The daughter ignores the warning, and the mother's premonition comes true when the daughter is abducted by the evil water goblin and ends up as his bride.  The flutes played the character of the goblin; the clarinets portrayed the daughter; and the violins assumed the role of the mother.  Having the story in mind as the music unfolded only served to enrich the CSO's performance.  As the first half of the show came to a close, the woman sitting next to me said, "Well, THAT was fun!"

Wardell and the CSO picked up where they left off after the intermission without missing a beat.  Wardell had barely stepped onto the podium when the violins began to buzz as the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams' Overture to the Wasps filled the performing arts center.    Spring was in the air, and I felt like kicking up my heels to this piece that had a surprising feel to it of being out on the prairie.

Firebird ballerina

Last, but by no means least, was Stravinsky's Firebird Suite (1919).  Once again Wardell introduced this piece, and the audience laughed as he explained that the suite tells a complex story that has something to do with a giant egg with a needle in it that was in a box that was chained to a tree that mysteriously changed locations.   What seemed important to understand was that Kashchei the Immortal ruled his realm with an iron fist and did not appreciate it when Prince Ivan dared to fall in love with one of the fair princesses of his kingdom.  Ivan became allied with the Firebird, whose music caused Kashchei and his creatures to dance a frenetic dance until they become so exhausted that they fell asleep.  Ultimately, Ivan learns that Kashchei's soul lives within the giant egg, and he kills Kashchei by destroying the egg.  Ivan and the princess live happily ever after.  Given the complexity of the story, it's no surprise that the music was both mysterious and exciting.  At times the melody was soporific as Kashchei is worn down from dancing the "Infernal Dance".  At others it was triumphant as the horns heralded the death of Kashchei and the dawn of a new day.  Throughout, the musicians of the CSO did an incredible job interpreting this story. In the course of the evening, we had been taken on a wonderful journey, from death to resurrection.

 Maestro Wada's tenure at the CSO will be remembered for many things.  Perhaps most important to his legacy are the creativity that he has shown in his programming and the confidence that he has exhibited in the ability of our musicians to rise to the challenges he has put before them.  There is no question that both the CSO and its audience have benefited as a result.  If "Elements of Music" is representative of what Wardell would bring to our community as the new maestro and music director of the CSO, Maestro Wada's legacy would not only remain intact, but would be built upon in fresh and exciting ways.  The bar has been set high for Raffaele Ponti, the third conductor auditioning for the role of maestro and music director of the CSO.  It's getting exciting.

Note:  This article was published in the January 17, 2013 edition of Florida Weekly.  

Michael Hirsh at Copperfish Books

If someone had asked me what Punta Gorda needed to round out our little community, I would have been have hard pressed to come up with any suggestions (other than some ethnic restaurants!)  But the moment I walked in the doors of Copperfish Books, Punta Gorda's new bookstore, I realized that this was precisely what we needed.  (It seems so obvious that it reminded me of those commercials where the woman thunks herself on the head saying, "I could have had a V-8!" )  I discovered this gem before the holidays and feel an addiction coming on.  The store carries a mixture of used, new, and antiquarian books, and you are sure to find something there to add to your night side table.     Cathy and Serena own the store, and their enthusiasm is contagious. I found myself talking with Cathy about Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird (one of my favorite books), and the conversation just flowed from there.  (In fact, both my friend and I found ourselves telling Cathy all sorts of random things about our families and holiday plans.  She just seems like someone you've known forever and are always happy to see.)

Copperfish Books is bringing more to the party, though, than just a welcoming atmosphere and lots of great books.  During the season, they will be hosting weekly book readings by local authors.  Their first author was Michael Hirsh.  Hirsh is the real deal, with both a Peabody Award and an Emmy sitting on his mantle.  He was a combat correspondent with the 25th Infantry Division during the Viet Nam War where he earned a CIB (Combat Infantryman Badge).  He found himself in Afghanistan in 2002 as the first journalist to be embedded with an Air Force combat unit fighting the war on terror.  (His book None Braver:  US Air Force Pararescuemen in the War on Terrorism was the result of his time there.)   His book The Liberators deals with the stories of the people who liberated Jews from Nazi concentration camps.   Hirsch co-authored Terri: the truth with Michael Schiavo, Terri's husband.  The book chronicles Schiavo's battle to heal his wife and then to allow her to die with dignity and was a New York Times best-seller.

In between his stints in Viet Nam and Afghanistan, Hirsh spent 19 years working in Hollywood.  That sounded a bit incongruous until I learned that much of that time was spent working on and around the show M*A*S*H.  Hirsh wrote and produced Making M*A*S*H, a documentary about the TV show that I'd love to see.  http://www.mash4077tv.com/articles/makingmash/   He also worked as a documentarian on the show After M*A*S*H.  Although the show only aired for two seasons, it sounds like it was quite the experience for Hirsh to hang out with Larry Gelbart and a bunch of sitcom writers.

While working in Hollywood, Hirsh developed a relationship with Ed Asner, and he pitched a book in the early '90s about Asner with the working title "Never Trust a Guy Named Charlton".  (Heston, that is.  With the current controversy over gun control, I couldn't resist including this reference to Mr. NRA.)   The response to his proposal was, "Who cares about Ed Asner now?  Can you write a book about Seinfeld instead?", as if the two guys were more or less interchangeable.

This is all very interesting, but it begs the question of how Hirsh came to be doing a reading in Copperfish Books in little Punta Gorda.   Hirsh and his wife Karen moved to Punta Gorda about a decade ago and lived through Hurricane Charley.  Although Hirsh has spent his life as an investigative journalist and documentarian, there's been a novel in him just waiting to come out, and fly on the wall is the result.  The book is a mystery about a guy who's found dead in Punta Gorda just after Hurricane Charley as the result of what appear to be hurricane-related injuries.  But Hirsh's hero, Paul "Fly" Moscone, thinks there's more to the story.  The book sounds like a fun read, but what I really enjoyed about the evening was having the chance to talk with the author about his experiences.  Hirsh's commentary on making the transition from his fact-bound world to the world of fiction was pretty amusing.  He shared a conversation that he had with his agent in which he was struggling to make the timeline of his story fit with the timeline of Charley.  "Michael," his agent said.  "This is fiction.  You can just make sh*t up."   What a concept!

Copperfish Books has a great line-up of authors slated to appear, with something for everyone.  You can check their website for info at http://www.copperfishbooks.com/.   Whether or not you can make it for a reading, stop by and check out the store.  I promise that you won't be disappointed.

Regarding Warhol, Part 3

The one thing I was learning about the Warhol exhibit at the Met was to expect the unexpected.  Still, it took me by surprise when Wendi and I entered a room covered with cow wallpaper that had huge helium star-shaped balloons floating all around and music playing from a Lou Reed album that Warhol produced.  (Here's a question.  What's the deal with the wallpaper?  I understand the seriality and all that, but I'm curious about the logistics.  Is there an enormous roll of it somewhere that they use for exhibits or are pieces actually moved from one exhibit to the next or what?  Inquiring minds want to know!)  In any event, we had entered the aptly named portion of the exhibit entitled "No Boundaries:  Business, Collaboration and Spectacle."

There's no doubt that Warhol was all about pushing the boundaries in art.  At the time he hit the art scene, abstract expressionism was the favored style in modern art (think Motherwell or Pollock or Rothko).  Not only did Warhol move away from abstract expressionism, some people consider him responsible for the "death of painting."  Rather than stand in front of an easel and create a work using paints and a paintbrush, Warhol appropriated images created by others and "took the hand out of art".  Wendi used this last phrase repeatedly when talking about Warhol's contributions to the art world, and it took me a bit of time to actually wrap my head around it.  Warhol took images already in existence and turned them into art.  Sometimes his raw material was a box of brillo pads; sometimes it was a photograph taken by someone else.  Often he turned the image over to someone else--or a machine--to actually create the work.  Pretty revolutionary.

Richard Prince's Marlboro Man

The remaining theme of the Warhol exhibit was "Consuming Images:  Appropriation, Abstraction and Seriality."  As you've probably gathered by now, any of these themes could easily be the subject of an entire exhibit, and many, many articles and books have been written about each of these topics.  In fact, even the courts have written extensively about the concept of appropriation in the art world.  Thinking back to the silkscreens of Jackie, it's obvious that Warhol didn't actually take the pictures that he used to create his work.  He appropriated a photograph that someone else took and adapted it for his use.  The exhibit contained works of other artists who similarly appropriated images created by others, including some works by Richard Prince, a photographer perhaps become best known for "his" images of the Marlboro man.  Prince would photograph another photograph--often from a magazine ad--and enlarge it and sell it as his own.  One of his pictures was sold by Christie's for over $1MM (which you can imagine would make the original photographer a bit piqued).  The lawsuit as to whether what Richard Prince did was sufficiently transformative of the original photograph to fall under the "fair use" rules is ongoing, although Prince lost at trial (even with attorney David Boies as lead counsel in the case).  The Andy Warhol Foundation, Google, and the Association of Art Museum directors have all filed briefs supporting Prince's appeal.  A similar issue was raised with respect to Stephen Fairey's use of a photograph taken by AP freelancer Mannie Garcia in his creation of the Obama "Hope" poster that sold like hot cakes following his first election.  That case settled out of court.  (For a short primer on appropriation in the art world, click here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appropriation_(art).)

As I find myself digressing from the actual Regarding Warhol exhibit, I am realizing both why it took me so long to tackle writing about this exhibit and, much more importantly, what a thought-provoking show it was.  (Again, I must give Wendi and her encyclopedic art knowledge a good deal of credit for making me really consider some of these questions rather than just giving them a flitting thought while passing through the show.)  The show did get a fair amount of criticism from the art world for a variety of reasons, with the most significant being that it's unclear whether many of the artists whose works are displayed were actually influenced by Warhol. The review in the NY Times made the point that not all of the living artists whose work was included in the exhibit were interviewed for the show and that at least one artist came right out and said that any connection between her work and Warhol's was tenuous at best.   http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/books/review/regarding-warhol-sixty-artists-fifty-years.html?emc=eta1  Whatever the criticisms, I enjoyed both seeing and thinking about the show immensely.  And now it's time for a nap.

Regarding Warhol, Part 2

Warhol is probably best known for his silkscreen paintings of celebrities, so it's no surprise that the curators of the Met chose "Portraiture:  Celebrity and Power" as one of the five themes of the exhibit.  What people perhaps don't know is that there's a dark side to many of these iconic images.  Did you know, for instance, that Warhol only became interested in Jackie Kennedy as a subject after JFK's assassination?   With his finger on the pulse of popular culture, he was drawn to the media blitz surrounding Jackie after Kennedy's death, and many of his works include images from the moments immediately prior to the assassination and at the funeral.

One of the most striking works by another artist in the category of "celebrity and power" was Jeffrey Koons' life-size, gold leaf painted porcelain sculpture Michael Jackson with Bubbles.  (Bubbles, you may have forgotten, was Michael's pet monkey.)  Koons created three of these sculptures in 1988 as the culmination of his "Banality" series.  The creepiness of this sculpture seems like a harbinger of how weird Jackson would get in his later life.  FYI, in case you can't quite place Jeffrey Koons' name, he's the artist who was married for a while to Cicciolina, the Italian porn star who served for five years in the Italian parliament.  (Honestly, I couldn't make this stuff up.)

From there we were on to "Queer Studies:  Shifting Identities."  I honestly have to say that before we got to this room, I'd never thought about Warhol's sexuality one way or another.   It certainly doesn't define his art the way that it does, say, Robert Mapplethorpe's work, so I didn't quite understand this as one of the themes.    Having said that, this room contained a haunting conceptual work named Untitled (Portrait of Ross in LA) by Felix Gonzalez-Torres.   When the exhibit opened, the work consisted of a 175 lb. pile of hard candies wrapped in brightly colored cellophane.  The weight of the pile represents the weight of Ross, Gonzalez-Torres' partner, at the time he contracted AIDS.  As museum-goers walk through the exhibit, they are invited to take a piece of the candy, and the diminishing pile represents the way that Ross diminished before he succumbed to the disease.  While the work certainly isn't traditional art, it makes a powerful statement.

We had now made our way through three of the five themes of the show.  It had been an interesting and exhibit already and still to come were the themes of "Consuming Images:  Appropriation, Abstraction and Seriality" and "No Boundaries:  Business, Collaboration and Spectacle."   I couldn't wait to see what was in store for us around the next corner.

Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years, Part 1

Andy Warhol said, "Buying is much more American than thinking, and I'm as American as they come."  This comment is a bit like a sly bow-tied, seer-sucker wearing lawyer with a Southern accent saying to a jury, "Now I'm just a country boy but...." as he demolishes his opposing counsel.   The Met's recent exhibit "Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years" made me think so much that I thought my head was going to explode.  (Of course, I attribute a lot of that to going to the exhibit with my friend Wendi, who has a mind-boggling amount of knowledge about contemporary art.)

Seeing "Regarding Warhol" before the exhibit closed at the end of the year provided the impetus for my trip to New York last month.   (I don't need much of an excuse to hop a flight to NY, especially when fares are only $200!)   The exhibit turned out to be nothing like what I expected.  I had anticipated a very straightforward show with a painting done by Warhol of, say, Marilyn next to a work done by another artist in a similar vein.  Instead, the curators of the Met put together a show around five themes that they believe capture the importance of Warhol's work.  (This approach turned out to be a bit controversial, as the themes that they selected did not necessarily jive with the  views of art historians nor did the artists whose work they chose necessarily take their cues from Warhol.)

Warhol's Green Car Crash

We entered the exhibit into a room organized around "Daily News:  From Banality to Disaster."  Concepts of mass consumerism abounded (along with the Warhol quote I opened with), and a stack of newspapers was piled up in one corner as a tribute to the power of the tabloids.   There were works about the Bhopal gas leak and Neal Armstrong taking one small step for mankind  and the LA riots.  (Warhol did a Death and Disaster series of paintings that were the inspiration for the darker side of this portion of the show.   His 1963 Green Car Crash--which was not in the exhibit--sold for $63MM in an auction at Christie's in 2007.  There's a video of the auction on YouTube and the bidding went from $17MM to $64MM in just over nine minutes.  The crowd didn't start to get into it until the auction had reached $50MM.)

Polke's Watchtower with Geese

A particularly haunting image from this part of the show was Sigmar Polke's Watchtower with Geese (1984).  This work is like the picture that can be either an old woman or a young girl, depending upon your perspective.  When I look at this painting, I immediately see a prison guard station.  When you focus on the right hand side of the painting, however, there are sunglasses and geese.  Could it instead be a hunting blind?  A lifeguard tower?  Knowing (now) that his family escaped  from East Germany to West Germany when Polke was a teenager provides support for my initial interpretation, but there's no doubt that the ambiguity in the work was intentional.

Warhol Boxes of Brillo Pads

The banality portion of the show with its focus on mass consumerism was much more what I had envisioned (although it had dark undertones as well). Here I found Warhol's boxes of Brillo pads juxtaposed with a painting of pots and pans by a German artist whose name I neglected to write down.  Warhol liked the idea of mass produced products as a leveler across economic classes.  Everyone drinks coke (four a day in my case) and takes aspirin and uses a spaghetti pot.  Wendi is a big Damien Hirst fan and one of his medicine cabinets, Eight over Eight, was on display. (He did an entire series of medicine cabinets that he filled with empty boxes from his grandmother's medicine cabinet.  His first four works were named after an album by the Sex Pistols--Bodies, Liar, Seventeen, and Pretty Vacant.)   I particularly liked Hans Haacke's Helmsboro Country (1990), which brought the two themes of this part of the exhibit together nicely with its five and a half foot long cigarettes.

Two rooms down, lots more to go.  Next up:  The exhibit continues with "Portraiture and Celebrity Power."