85/365 Matt
All passing traffic sees the full-story portrait on his studio façade. First it’s van Gogh, with whom he may feel affinity. It morphs into Kahlo, who becomes Bush, then Bozo. Einstein. I missed Albert’s transmogrification into Barney Fife, who for me arrived fully formed.
posted by Indigo Bunting at 6:19 AM
18 Comments:
Matt is such a strange and wonderful creature. I kept running into him unexpectedly up there. He always struck me as the quintessential Artist---tremendous talent, sizable ego, big inner demons, huge appetite for life.
... and the Portrait of Barnie Fife is great! I just saw it yesterday! Like you Indigo, I missed the transformation though.
I saw Barney in the post-Einstein-pre-Fife stage before we left. Let me tell you, it was slightly disturbing at first but then seemed appropriate to go from scientific genius to slapstick comedian - these two contrasted far better than Bush into Bozo...
Your correct spelling and usage of the word "transmogrification" identifies you as a fellow Calvin and Hobbes lover, I think, but we were talking about Matt.
Does this person have a website?
Hmmm. Apparently he does have a website (which doesn't show his studio, alas).
www.mattsolon.com
I'm really curious as to how the Kahlo-Bush transmogrification was effected.
Oh, and Calvin and Hobbes, yes, mm. The great populizers. Although Webster's does date the word to 1656.
And Helen, I just hope I'm getting the order right here. All the in-betweenness is quite odd, as you might imagine! I'm thinking Bush appeared just shortly after his re-election, so he happened to follow Frida (whom my friend Sioux had originally asked Matt to paint on HER barn, and after she never followed through, he ran with that one). I do not believe that Matt is a particular fan of Bush. I think he was just puttin' stuff out there and lettin' people talk.
I believe the order went:
Frida
(changed without much fanfare into)
Van Gogh
(painful to watch as Vincent morphed into Bush)
Bush (was up prior to the election and then stayed for FAR too long - then with almost no transmogrification needed he became)
Bozo
(after some simple editing - the hair was similar ;-) it was suddenly Albert. Who I thought held a striking resemblance to our local astronomy guru Errol Pomerance)
Einstein
(who recently swirled into Barney)
Fife
who now greets the public with a daffy grin...
FRA: THANK you. Tim, Sioux, and I went round and round trying to remember if Frida was first or Vincent. Part of me thought it was Frida, cuz it was originally Sioux's idea, and I was shocked to see it on Matt's space. But then we thought maybe it was Vincent first, and he EVENTUALLY got to Frida, not just jumping into it like that. I shoulda called you first. But then, where's the surprise in reading 365? Glad to have your remembrances of things past here...Oh, and YEAH, Errol Pomerance! You're absolutely right.
Am I mistaken or was Mona Lisa there too? I believe that was quite a while ago. And I give thanks for Matt and all his quirkiness. After all he is the only human brave enough to give ME a working accordian!
Yes - Mona Lisa...after Frida? It's weird - like I can't figure out if he really painted her too or if I'm imagining it.
Jack says he thinks there was a Mona Lisa too
Funny, as soon as BK said this, I felt I could see it, but also thought it might be power of suggestion. Tim says he thinks there wasn't one. I was actually going to ASK Matt for the true order if I ran into him before I posted, but that didn't happen. Memory can be so slippery. Hope any inaccuracy on my part didn't detract from the post!
Definitely no detractions... Matt is a colorful and talented character. Who ever runs into him first has to at least find out about Mona Lisa! That is going to drive me nuts. I can see her. But was she ever really there?
All talent aside, are we certain Matt will remember whether there was a Mona Lisa, let alone in which order he might have painted his master works? ;-)
He may not remember the order but he WILL remember her existance, if she really did.
A post script: On September 27, Beatrix Kiddo, Fat Red Ant, Matt, and I were all at the bar at the same time, and we asked him the order (which is jotted down on a napkin, from which I now quote). No Mona Lisa. Van Gogh, Kahlo, Bush, Bozo, Einstein, Fife. (The latest incarnation is Bernie Sanders, for the election season.) Amazingly, it would appear I got it right after all.
Willie Nelson.
In October, Dracula a la Béla Lugosi.
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