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Bernard Dov Wisser's Journal of advice, opinion, and ventilation...also raps about art, spirituality, being a human being and everything else....
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Friday, August 08, 2003
My Tattooed Muse © by b.wisser With a special thanks to Erica ("the celebrity") for posing... For Large View of Art Piece Click on Picture An Interview With Erica ("the celebrity") Is her growing fame another case of the well known Warholian 15 minutes of FameIt was just about a year ago when Erica ("the celebrity") read me the following quote from Erich Fromm, "Most people die before they are fully born. Creativeness means to be born before one dies.". After reading that aloud she seemed to go off in a brown study, or a pensive haze, and shortly afterwardS said, "I think creativity means to be born, and reborn, and reborn, and reborn, again and again, until one dies." I remember that upon hearing that, a strange tingle surged through my body. More than once, I felt something similar when a remark that turned out to be prophetic was made. In this case, Erica's statement also seems to have been clairvoyant! That is--considering her sudden rise to "celebrity" status. It all started in instant of my own idiosyncratic silliness. Although, I have been a professional painter for twenty-five years, I have often had to supplement that income with being a free-lance art and culture columnist for various international magazines, which I write under an pseudonym. Because of that, I often get invited to gallery and museum openings, and even some culturally oriented exclusive soirees. One afternoon attending an opening in Amsterdam upon entering the gallery with Erica, the gallery owner came over to greet me. I immediately introduced her to Erica, by saying, "...and I guess you know Erica ("the celebrity"). I was just goofing on the Jewish Jokes about "My Son,('the Doctor'). To our amusement the gallery owner, said of course she did and added, "Who hasn't?” We began to think someone spiked the fruit drink they were serving, because as we perused the gallery, the owner would sidle up to us and introduce us to the nearest cluster of people with something like, "I would like you to meet Erica the celebrity and her friend the painter and writer. The people in these different groups would politely ask me what I paint or what kind of writing I do, but they really didn't seem to be listening to me, for there attention was obviously more focused on Erica than myself. Soon Erica was being pulled away from me by different new acquaintances, and almost inevitably introduced to different people as Erica ("the celebrity). When we left the gallery I signed the guest book with my own name and Erica ("the celebrity"). We had a few openings to attend and as we walked to the next one Erica told me not one person had asked here what she did, or how she became a celebrity--everybody acted as if they knew, and many others would go on to introduce her as Erica ("the celebrity"). I had two other openings I had to attend, so we tried an experiment, and did the same think with the same results. Not only that but we ran into people who we met at the other openings and they would greet her with different versions of Yoo Hoo Erica...and then almost pull her over (and sometimes me) to meet their friends—moreover, they inevitably introduced her again as Erica ("the celebrity"). Soon, we noticed the photographer was taking more pictures of us, standing alone or in different groups, than almost any of the prominent people in the room. When we left the openings I again signed the guest books the same way. Since then our mailbox is full of invitations, to parties, charity, functions, opening etc, and more often than not they are addressed to Erica ("the celebrity") and friend. Erica has been asked to do fashion spreads in chic magazines, give speeches at different charity functions etc. She has declined those invitations so far, for although you wouldn't know it she is quite shy (though very poised) and introverted. Recently, we have become a bit disoriented by what's happening. We ask each other is Erica ("the celebrity) a dream, a daydream, a fantasy that has become, materialized. Will it continue? And will it grow? How long can it possibly last? However one thing is sure Erica takes to being a celebrity like the proverbial duck takes to champagne. I can't believe how silly people are being, but Erica doesn't agree. However, I should let Erica herself give you her hit on the situation herself. BW: So my dear, are you surprised by your rise to fame and having become celebrity so fast. ETC: Of course I am surprised by how easily people have accepted my status as a celebrity and how much they vicariously want to share and be part of it—or at least be touched by it…and don’t make any wise cracks about that…because women as well as men want to associate with me… BW: Well, these are liberated times! Seriously, besides my introducing you as Erica (‘the celebrity’) why do you think you have become a celebrity so easily? ETC: Because, I have arrived at my natural state for this time of my life—it’s like oil floating to the surface in a sea of water…People think backwards a lot you know…. BW: Backwards? I don’t get you! ETC: That’s because you already got me honey—oh sorry—I can’t do these things straight! Look, I bet you think Picasso became a celebrity because he is a great painter, but it is just the opposite…Picasso had the motivation to become a great painter because, he had to have a channel to rise to the top as a celebrity. People need celebrities because the Gods are no longer in and chic. Look, you are not much of celebrity, although you are a great artist in my opinion… BW: Oh Good, the hypnosis is working! What you are saying sounds terribly fatalistic though… ETC: Not really…look you told me as a kid and as a young man you wanted to terribly famous, a superstar—in fact for a while you called yourself Bernard Superstar…but you never achieved that type of fame! Now I on the other hand never once had dreams of becoming famous let alone a superstar. Fame is and was like an empty void in my head—I just don’t have a hunger for it…That’s why I am accepted as a celebrity and becoming famous…I don’t care—it’s nice, but I like painting the house over and over again too… I think when you called me a celebrity people felt at some subliminal level I don’t care at all about being a celebrity…and who doesn’t care about something like that—I tell you who someone who in the most absolute sense already is! Now I am just being recognized for it…you see I told you people have it all backwards…you think being recognized is making me a celebrity—but I felt to others like a celebrity that’s why I am recognized as one. BW: Boy I must really have thinks backwards because from my frame of reference, you have it backwards and twisted… do you really believe what you are saying? ETC: I don’t know—I mean all I know is that as a celebrity – a role that was flung onto me—I have a responsibility to the public who increasingly is making me more of a celebrity…so I am trying to find meaning in all this…. BW: Now, I have it—you obviously don’t give a damn—if your fame goes with the wind as far as you are concerned – that fine for where you will be then—reborn. Maybe you are right the more intensely you don’t care about it, the more you will be draped in it…It’s like a Greta Garbo thing. ETC: Garbo? She didn’t play Scarlet O’Hara…. SEE MORE OF WISSER'S ART--CLICK here-- Click : Marvel Place* STATE YOUR MIND--OR ASK FOR ADVICE: Post You Comments Click (below) To Enter Forum You are invited to send me your criticism, or you can contribute your own material for publication. Make this your site also--use the Forum Box above. I sure appreciate your interest and would love your participation..
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CLICK HERE FOR WISSER'S ART SITE: MARVEL PLACE  "Your Weekday Abstract Art Piece"WELCOME TO ARTS OF PARADISE--Go Gallery hopping at a series of virtual International Galleries--and for you ARTISTS this is the spot to exhibit up to 30 of your works and be received by an international audience-- and what's more there are not finer people to deal with than those who run the Arts of Paradise Gallery...CLICK HERE For A Most Important Art Site Click below on wwar: 
Visitors: Volume 1, issue 21, July 30, 2003..
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