'Hatch a Photo' contest gallery: Detail
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Photographer: John Aaron Team: There were no accomplices. Title: Portrait of the Artist In the Shadow of the Egghead Caption: Well. I’m here now, Bob. Now what? Explanation: The Egghead Series is a tremendous treasure for the campus to have. Taking my picture with an Egghead was my way of reconnecting to Bob when I moved back to Northern California this past fall. I attended UCD in the early 70’s after seeinga photo of Robert Arneson’s “Typewriter” in a magazine. I had the opportunity to study at TB 9 at a time when Bob’s retrospective was at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and artists like Richard Notkin, Deborah Butterfield and Tom Rippon cranked out bodies of work for which they would soon become internationally recognized. Arneson’s exhibition remains the most humorous art show I can recall, visual slapstick that holds its own with the funniest comedians of our time. I blame Bob that I cannot resist being a smart aleck somehow in almost every piece of art I do. When Picasso died, students were wandering around sounding morose in the studio when Bob walked in, overalls and cigar, and loudly announced, “Picasso’s dead. That knocks all other artists up one notch!” While in Washington from 2001-2006, I chanced to stumble upon “Kiln Man” at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. The first time I ever walked into TB 9, it was standing in the kiln still cooling down. Seeing it again blew me away so much that I became a Docent for the Hirshhorn, sharing whenever I could, this story that I now share with you. No eggs were broken in the creation of this photograph. |