August 2018
The Factory was what Andy Warhol called his studio in New York, and this is based on a true incident. At this distance, I still can’t believe my eighteen year old self deciding that this was a good idea, to just show up at a famous artist’s place and think we could hang out for the day, but that’s just what we did. We helped silk screen, did a screen test (these were showing on a loop at the MOMA years later when I went to the Matisse show), went to a screening with the Velvet Underground. . . . www.barbaracrooker.com
Surface
“If you want to know all about Andy Warhol,
just look at my films and paintings and me.
There’s nothing behind it. That’s all there is.”
-Andy Warhol
It is all surface, isn’t it, the thin blue silk of the sky, an oak leaf’s chlorophyll
production line, the unblinking eye of the pond? When I was as shallow
as an undergraduate could possibly be, I peeled off from a field trip
to Soho galleries to visit The Factory; my friend and I
nearly identical in our veneers: ironed hair, wheat jeans, black
sleeveless shells, our unwavering scorn of the outside world . . . .
It was dazzling, every surface painted silver: the walls, ceilings,
tables, chairs, bathroom fixtures, like walking into a roll
of aluminum foil. And Andy—thin, spectral, white blond hair,
black sunglasses, nearly wordless. Mostly, he just was, the zen
of non-being, the art of perfect detachment. And we were mute,
too, inarticulate in our youth. We knew what it was we didn’t
want, but not what we did.
Now, all these years and lives later, the twistings and turnings
of many roads— some macadam, some asphalt, some stone—
I can’t remember her name, just how straight her hair was,
how it hung down her back like a bolt of cloth.
In the untidy closet of my heart, I think about what we put on,
fashion, facade, how many layers we need between our skin
and the rest of the world.
-from Line Dance, (Word Press, 2008)
© 2018 Barbara Crooker