Tales of a Shrink

As regular readers of this blog (hi, mom!) will know, I like to post something cultural on Fridays. Last month (it was April, you stoners) was National Poetry Month, so Fridays usually saw some poetry.

So, wanting to continue this tradition, I did a little research to see to what National Noun the month is May is dedicated. And I discovered that May is National Masturbation Month, National Physical Fitness Month, and National Electrical Safety Month.I can think of a way to celebrate all three of these at once. Can you?

Since May isn't dedicated to any particular art form, I'm just going to talk about whatever cultural thing I want to.

And today I'm going to talk about Arman (whose birth name is Armand Pierre Fernandez), a French-born artist currently living in New York. He is known for featuring accumulations of every-day objects.

So picture it: It's 1989, and I am twelve. My parents take me to see the Arman Retrospective at the Detroit Institute of Arts (my parents often took me to art museums, and because I was a little fag, I was thrilled to go). I remember almost everything about that exhibit, because it was the first time in my life I looked at art and understood it--not just "Oh, that's a lovely picture. Very nice." More like "I think that's brilliant. Just looking at it makes me feel good. I want to own it, so I can see it every day, and share it with my friends."

Fast forward about ten years, and I'm in college, studying in France. I take a weekend-trip to Nice, and as I'm walking from the Youth Hostel to the Beach, I pass by an art gallery, and I turn my head and I see an Arman in the window, very similiar to the ones that I saw as a child. I went into the gallery, carrying my backpack and my towel. A woman comes out from the back and looks at me suspiciously. She asks, "Can I help you?" (In French, of course.) I respond, "I was just walking by, and I saw the Arman, and I just wanted to see it up close."

She immediately changed from being suspicious to extremely warm--"Oh! You know Arman!" And then she showed me every Arman work in the gallery, even taking me into the back rooms to see the ones that had already been sold. We talked, and I had a great afternoon. She gave me a business card, which I still have in my wallet. (This is the gallery's website.)

Here are a few of his works:

Careless, a sliced-up bicycle and palette knives on canvas
Untitled, an accumulation of squashed paint tubes on canvas
Vibrations, a sliced miniature music instrument

Here is the artist's website.

The Friday hottie:

Teddy Dunn, who plays Duncan Kane on my current favorite TV show, Veronica Mars.