“All I see is that you’re writing with a pen. Yay!!!”
Author Patty Friedmann cheered the hand-written word after
seeing the photo below. It was
December 2010, and I scribbled on the pages of a purse-size artsy notebook,
purchased annually in multiples from the Morgan Library museum shop.
George Rodrigue photographed me as I sat on the steps of a former
military base, one of eight bunkers now housing Dan Flavin neon installations at
the Chinati Foundation in the remote town of Marfa, Texas.
The resulting essays became two of my most popular: “New York Art in West Texas” for Musings of an Artist's Wife and a related
story for Gambit Weekly, “Rejecting the Metaphor: Discovering Modern Art in West Texas.” (click the titles for the stories-)
Gambit spotlighted
their essay for a week with a photo on the New Orleans newspaper’s opening
page, and numerous art sites shared the funny Musings account of George Rodrigue’s Marfa comments long before he
talked me into risking a public facebook page of my own.
Thousands of readers, whether or not they accepted concrete
boxes and crushed cars as art, related to these stories for their
honest and non art-speak account of a minimalist installation designed, let’s
face it, for the art elite.
Yet in my mind I still was not a writer. The posts are a compilation of George’s
photographs and comments and, as he himself stated,
“What people don’t realize, Wendy, is that all of that funny stuff you write is really me!”
Indeed.
(pictured, Don’t Come
Around Here While I’m Hot, 2012, acrylic on canvas by George Rodrigue,
20x24 inches; finished this week in New Orleans-)
Recently while waiting in line at a pharmacy window, a woman
asked me in one breath, as New Orleanians will do, my opinion on this newly
renovated Elysian Fields Walgreens and if I thought she overdid it that morning
on her royal blue eye shadow, a gift from her daughter.
Predictably, we moved quickly on to the Saints and the price
of shrimp-per-pound followed by the question that, although somehow inoffensive
in her thick yat accent, I hoped to avoid,
“Dahlin', what do you do for a livin'?”
She leaned hard against the railing, obviously in pain from
her recent knee replacement surgery, and I knew that my standard reply, I have an art gallery with my husband, moves
quickly to “What kind of art?,” followed by “What does he paint?,” followed by “What’s
the story of the Blue Dog?,” all more than I felt like answering on this Sunday morning and certainly more than she needed in her uncomfortable
condition.
I’m a writer, I
stated verbally for the first time in my life.
“You write books?!,” she exclaimed, obviously impressed. “Which ones?”
I back-pedaled, explaining that I work on art books, and that
unless she was into modern art, she probably wouldn’t have seen them.
“Which artists?” she asked….
….and before I knew it I was exactly where I didn’t want to
be….explaining the history of the Blue Dog to a growing crowd at
Walgreens while the artist himself waited in the car outside, where he called our brunch guests, explaining that we’d be late and wondering what on earth detained me.
(pictured, Rodrigue books at the Louisiana Book Festival last weekend; click photo to enlarge-)
George Rodrigue, however, introduces me often with the words,
“This is my wife Wendy. She’s a writer.”
My heroes are writers, just as my heroes are artists, and I stammer
in reply to what I see as an undeserving title.
I’ve contributed to, compiled and/or edited eight Rodrigue
books since 1994. Yet it’s not the
same as writing my own.
(pictured....posing star struck during last weekend’s Louisiana Book Festival with a
real writer, Shirley Ann Grau, who won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel Keepers of the House in 1965; behind us,
upper right, is George Rodrigue’s portrait of Grau, part of an installation,
“Walker Percy, Sylvester Stallone and the Blue Dog,” on view through November
30, 2012 at the State Library of Louisiana-)
It was author David Lummis who first labeled me a writer and
gave me the courage to use the word within bios and on-line.
Now, thanks to a persistent and courageous UL Press, I’ll release my first
solo book, a collection of essays from Musings
of an Artist’s Wife, in bookstores nationwide, Fall 2013.
Will you join me on
the book tour? I asked George, laughing, as I imagined him swapping out old
sharpies and spelling dedications in my ear.
“Yes!” he replied, to my surprise. “It’ll be fun!”
With that, we hope to see you on the road (and at our favorite festival) next fall-
Wendy
-for more art and discussion, please join me on facebook-

Well, FINALLY! You're not just a writer, you're a wordsmith. Your next job will be to see how lyrically you write. And then you will acknowledge (as I think you already do because, as an art critic, you have to)that you know how to layer meaning without your reader catching on. And then...and then...and then you won't say you're a writer, you'll say you're an author!!!
ReplyDeleteYay!!! You've always been a writer in my mind. You have one of the best voices, and if you recall, I used your RATS story to teach voice to my students. Very happy and excited for you! Sincere congratulations!
ReplyDeleteRE your being a writer, I just stated the obvious. Your blog posts have moved (and educated) me again and again, and I'm delighted they'll now be reaching an even wider audience. Congratulations!!
ReplyDeleteI follow your blog for my sanity when I'm in Northern Africa-I'm an art therapist and work with disabled tribal children-can't wait to have them paint the "Blue Dog"...in all my workshops it's the one painting that quickly changes frowns to smiles* A big "Thank you" to George from the children at S.H.E.R.P. (https://www.facebook.com/pages/SHERP/138632706205667)
ReplyDeleteWow! Thank you for this beautiful comment and the connection to S.H.E.R.P. (which I just followed on facebook). George and I are in Utah at the moment, crossing America in our truck, and the idea that you are sharing his art with these children and connecting with us from Northern Africa has touched us both deeply. Many thanks for letting us know. If you haven't seen it already, you might enjoy our foundation's education resources, linked here: http://www.georgerodriguefoundation.org/site315.php
DeleteWith the very best regards to you and your students- George and Wendy Rodrigue