Andy Warhol is a true American classic.  One of my favorite artists,  he was as diverse as he was original.  He liked to think outside the box,  and then sell it!  He took everyday objects, newspaper clippings, motion picture, sound, practically any and everything he could get his hands on and make some sort of art out of it.  Even his mail  is art!    He was not offensive, yet he could come up with some off the wall things  that would make  you think twice.   Some footage  of him is absolutely hilarious.  One interview , I believe it is one of his earlier ones,  is answered with simple  "Um,yes." and , "Um, no."  It is very deadpan, and almost emotionless.  It wasn't intended to be funny,  but it is. He is giggling, too, because I think the interviewer was expecting some 'arty'  answer from him.  Classic!    And that  brings us to an interview I read in a photography magazine article. This was when he was really into photography.  Everyone was  blown away by the  arresting and sometimes flat out bizarre photos in the book.  They asked him how he came up with such astounding images.  He said anyone can take a picture, and  that he left the 'good' pictures in the box and used the 'bad' ones.    Of course, I am not an expert on Warhol, but I really do like  his work.He took everything to an extreme,  made you look at things in a different way. That's what I love about it.  Take for instance the  9.98 Jesus-  something sacred-at a new low price! Or a  typical banana, with a pink fruit inside! Who would have guessed that?  (The bananas were used on the cover of the cult classic album 'The Velvet Underground and Nico', which Warhol  sponsored,  and has some pretty wild  tracks on it.  I'm not lucky  enough to own one of the LP's so I have it on CD.)     American life, especially consumerism,  was attractive to Andy. Marilyn Monroe , emblazened  in several different colors in several different styles became even more of a household name, art,  and, a consumer  'item'  when   he put her in his silkscreens. Not only on silkscreens,  but in magnets, as seen at right.    My daughter knows how much I love Andy, so she bought me the four magnet set for Christmas.  She took them out of the pack and put them up,  as seen at bottom right, with the gun pointing right at Marilyn! I thought that was sort of funny in a weird  sort of way, considering she just unwrapped them and put them up, unintentionally putting Marilyn in  imaginary danger.

I would   like to thank the Andy Warhol Foundation  in New York  for helping  me after Hurricane Katrina  with a grant to buy new art supplies so I can keep on creating art.  Most of my supplies were ruined  so this helped me out a great deal.  Thank you again so much!!

For all Andy all the time, visit                                     www.warhol.org

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