9 MARCH 2015
WHEN I posted this ten years ago, I asked the three-pronged question: Is this art? blasphemy? or sell-out?
What it was was my ticket into Gallery 267. There was a long heated debate about my joining that co-op gallery. The fine-artists didn't want any illustrators, especially cartoonists or caricature artists.
WHEN I entered this, they changed their minds. Yes, it had caricature but maybe because it had nudity and absurdity and was done all in blue pencil, it had enough fine art to make it OK.
WHEN is the nickname I gave this piece. Its official title is "Don't Let On That You Knew Me." Those fine artists who were not Dylan fans may have also liked this arty title. But some of us knew where the line came from and the next word in the phrase is WHEN, as in when it was your world... And it was their world and I wanted in.
I got in with WHEN. Joyce Carol Oates disrobed for me. Dylan looked on nervously. And Mark Twain-like all my fine art judges-scowled. And WHEN became the blasphemous, sell-out piece of art that opened the door ten years ago.
