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Do you remember my post a while ago about famous and talented people with whom I have a tenuous connection? I had another one of those moments yesterday when, prompted by my mother, I Googled Jonathan Callan. The Callan family lived next door to us for twenty five years or so and Jonathan went off to London to 'do something in art'.
Frustrated by my parents' lack of knowledge about his progress, other than to say he seemed to be doing nicely - this is after having spoken to his mum and dad only last week, you understand - I Googled him.
I don't claim to be an art buff but the thing about art is that it rather relies on its ability for it to resonate with you for it to be succesful, hence some people don't get Tracy Emin's bed or don't dig Damien Hurst; but when I saw Jonathan's fanatstic work with old books I was blown away.
But whether or not I liked it or not, in art terms he is cool, that is to say he is red hot, not to put too fine a point on it, he is very famous.
He won't even remember me, but I am proud to add him to my list of people who I hope have rubbed a bit of their creativity or talent off on me as we have brushed past each other along life's way.
What is it about fame and celebrity that, no matter how we resist its allure, we still can't help crowing when we have famous friends. Take the other week, for example I learnt that only one floor away from me at work, was the bass player from the punk band Fast Cars who were nearly famous in the eighties; in fact Stuart has a photograph of himself and Paul Weller in his office. Listening to their tracks on MySpace I'd forgotten how much fun that thrash power pop stuff was; if you get chance have a listen by following the link above.
The thing is that despite the fact that I don't really know him, I now tell everyone about him. I like to think that it's something to do with being pleased that someone is creative because if it was simply that Stuart had been on Big Brother I certainly wouldn't bother, so in that vein - creativity - here are two other people I know who are remarkably creative (and also nearly famous...not that it matters, you understand).
Tony Ballantyne actually is famous, if you are in to science fiction. He is a real writer with real books on sale at Amazon; he was also nominated for the Phillip K Dick Award for science fiction this year and went to America for the ceremony. If you meet him ask him about the American sense of humour that simply drew blank looks at this snippet of conversation:
"Congratulations on your Dick, Tony"
"Yes, it's magnificent isn't it".
My other recent discovery was that someone I had
known for a while was actual a relatively well known local artist with things wrote about him by proper journalists on the web, not just us bloggers. Chris Maidens creates incredibly intricate artwork that defy description. They are little worlds of their own that, in one article, were described as doodles; but after you have experienced the way that his work draws you in with it's detail and challenges you to see more and more in it, 'doodles' just doesn't do it justice. I was hoping to put a picture of his here but the website that features Chris's work is a bit funny about copyright and all that so it wouldn't let me, follow the link above to see it; and in the meantime I'll have a word with him about displaying one of his pieces for you.(I asked him and added this one on 2nd October).
One day if I'm famous maybe someone will tell their friends about me; maybe they already do, but for all the wrong reasons...hmmm.
