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June 4, 2008
I was talking with the Toadkeeper once,
while walking around in Manhatten TOADKEEPER
(crossing Park Avenue in mid-town if I
remember right, though I have no idea
why we were in that neighborhood), he
mentioned to me what was probably an old
idea with him:
He liked the idea of doing a painting
with some "Penthouse Pet" kind of woman
nailed to a cross. He was chortling
at his cleverness, imagining that that
this would "really piss people off".
I responded "Actually, I think I saw
that idea used once in some Hugh Grant "Sirens" (1994) was
movie... oh yeah, I think it was set in Australia in a
called 'Sirens'." historical setting, a
priest (Anglican) and
He seemed distressed to hear this, and his wife are sent out
wrinkled his nose saying "Hugh Grant???". to try to talk to a
reclusive artist
And that struck me as really about withdrawing an
surprising: wasn't he used to artwork titled 'Venus
this by now? Crucified'.
People independently re-invent There's a bunch of
each other's ideas all the time. philosphical argument --
in retrospect they do
The trick, it seems to me, is a good job of being fair
to rest secure in the to the side they have no
knowledge that your own sympathy with -- but the
rendition of an idea is story largely revolves
likely to be different from around the stable of
someone else's. female models the artist
keeps around.
You might even take the
re-discovery as an indication Essentially, it's
that you're on the right the Christians
track. against the
pagans and the
And in any case, there are pagans seduce the
so many ideas -- how could Christians.
you possibly work on them
all? If one seems exhausted But I hadn't
move on to another. realized that
the movie --
NOVELTY_AGAIN set in the
1930s -- is
based on
I explained: "Look, you could organize historical
an exhibition on the theme 'Woman incident.
Crucified' and invite a hundred
artists to contribute, and you still The artist was
wouldn't have exhausted the subject." Norman Lindsay.
He commented "Hm, you
could do one with an old
black woman... that (Which is true enough, but still
would be different." seemed a bit obvious... it was
odd he hadn't thought through the
variations.)
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