As you know, I was invited to White House for SXSL. I have many good pictures of what was a real fun day. But I wanted to share this one in particular 'cause I am still processing how awesome meeting Chuck Close was.
So when I saw Chuck Close on the South Lawn, I realized that I had to introduce myself. As an artist he has always been a favorite, if not the favorite, though its sort of impossible to rank something like that. I have long imitated many of his concepts in my own art. I even designed my fourth robot to fit large canvases so it could paint portraits on the scale of his work.
While I wasn't expecting to be starstruck when I went up to introduce myself, I was. I didn't know what to say so I just told him I was a portrait artist to which he replied that he was sorry to hear that as it was a horrible line of work to be in. Then we chatted about portraiture briefly where he made a couple of other jokes before asking to see some of my work. I wasn't expecting that, either his interest in my work, or his compassionate humor. I showed him some portraits of my family on my phone, said my thanks for taking the time to talk with me, then went on my way.
I wanted to talk to him longer but at same time didn't want to be a harasser.
