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1/27/03 I'm at the outsider art fair with my friend Dave, and he points out a display of cartoony images in bright red and black with lines of text on them like: "She didn't like my temper tantrums." and "I got a lot of mumble jumble going on in my high speed action drama life." and "Why don't you listen to the question and be motherfucking quiet?" Really good sharp funny stuff that made me want to quit writing because this artist, Daniel Belardinelli, had it nailed in just one line, a whole story in just one line, and I'm a hack, really, writing pages and pages just to say the same thing he does. Raymond Carver short story titles, all of them. So I'm writing down all of these lines, hoping to steal them, reuse them at least in an entry about the show, or in a story sometime, and the gallery guy walks up to me. I think he thought I was a writer. Well, I am a writer, but probably not the kind of writer he thought I was, like some art critic or something like that. He asked me if I liked the work, and I said yes, and he said, "Oh, you should meet the artist, he's right here!" Dammit, I was busted. There I was being a thief, and now I had to make nice with the guy I was robbing. Of course he was really friendly, and in fact invited me to come see his work. He said that he uses nail polish exclusively in these drawings, and that he has stacks and stacks of books of little cartoons and lines, these perfect gems. He invited me to see them, and I don't know why, but I actually took him up on it. We emailed today, and I swear to god the following exchange took place:
From: Me I take the JMZ into Manhattan with all the Hassids who look at me funny and try to make me feel like I'm a bad Jew. What they don't realize is that I already know I'm a bad Jew and it doesn't bother me one bit. It's a real trip out here, yea. I like it a lot.
From: Him I like that title: "I'm a Bad Jew" or maybe even "Bad Jew", can I use it? What's a little theivery amongst friends? |