search for TL

In later years of life I've gotten in touch with my art side, and even sometimes consider myself a pop artist who uses Amazon book covers as a medium. My own art education is a tragic story. In high school the art teacher let kids play whatever music they wanted to, but they had horrible taste and I am a musician, sensitive, so I was angry; I kept talking in class and pretty soon was assigned to write a 500-word essay on "why you shouldn't talk in art class." I wrote it all in one sentence, and my art career went downhill from there.

Fast forward to today I'm a 71-year-old with business in the University of Iowa Hospitals and while in town I try to find an artist, another TL, to ask him a couple of questions about people he knows, my first girlfriend, and a woman who died recently who was his father's personal assistant. His father was famous, you can probably already put two and two together, so he was born into the art world. He started a gallery in Iowa City in a pretty redecorated building just south of the tracks.

But here's the thing: the art world has just undergone a huge crash. Apparently people were rolling in it just a couple years ago, and now nobody can sell anything. None of the high rollers are investing in art at all. Now I guess if you're really rich you just ride it out and the art will still be there when this is all over, but who knows. I peer into the windows of his gallery and it's locked, again, with a single mattress in one of its main rooms. Maybe it's open by appointment. Maybe he's found another way to make money. I'm not sure what's going on. There were a few cars in the driveway, as if someone is using the back part of the gallery to live in.

It's curious, the world of art. I should make an appointment, but I don't want to buy anything. Also have an aversion to phone calls. I emailed him but he didn't answer.

Instead, I just head home to make more of my own art. To be continued.