Picasso and Mose Tolliver Forever

Mose Tolliver(Alabama Artist)

The Brooklyn Rail: Alabama Picasso


    Immediately I found this article interesting because of course, PICASSO.  OK, yea yea, Picasso, duh.  Anyway, so I read on and find out that this Ben La Rocco fellow, the author, is more interested in observing the beautiful woman he went to the Picasso exhibit with than the actual Picassoes themselves!!   But he is not only observing a beautiful woman, he is letting the pretty lady see the paintings for him as he watches her...
  


     "We walked from one to the next and I could see her seeing the paintings, which was so much better than looking at them myself. Life does not imitate art. As life happens around you it doesn’t look or smell or taste like art. It looks like life."


That is romantic, I do believe.   Romantic like cigarettes(I mean that in a good way.) This beginning statement carried through the entire article which was really kind of funny and endearing in a way as La Rocco, an artist himself, takes us through his clumsy journey through an art gallery in Montgomery, Alabama where he manages to knock paintings off piles and onto the floor over and over again in his wild excitement.  Anton Haardt the owner didn't seem to mind.
    La Rocco seems to be relating Picasso to the folk artists of Alabama because of the resourceful approach to the creative process.  La Rocco mentions how Picasso made art out of anything and painted on anything,  that's what these artists do in Alabama.  There is an interesting tie-in at the end of the article, where La Rocco writes, 


    "There are often words boldly etched in their paintings, and there is a celebratory, ecstatic quality to their use of humble materials. There is a pronounced willingness to work with whatever falls to hand. It’s never about the quality of materials; it’s about the inspiration of the moment."

Mose Tolliver

    This brings me back to the beginning of the article when we are given the image of the author watching the beautiful woman see the paintings, instead of looking at them himself.  This is a moment of inspiration to me, because he was probably going to the show to look at the paintings, but instead, he saw them a completely different way.  To me this is very poetic, like cigarettes.  And Chopin.
:|SJH