Art & Sideburns

Tonight while on the train to Chelsea I noticed this man next to me and his lack of sideburns, which I found disturbing. So disturbing that I secretly snapped a photo. I mentioned to my friend that there seems to be a new trend of trimming your sideburns incredibly short. Where does this come from? Is it a military influenced thing? Then, I glanced to my left to see another guy 6 feet away sporting the same look. Whoever inspired it, it looks stupid.

Why?

So many art openings tonight in Chelsea that my friends Victor and Laurah (who pointed out I spelled her name wrong on a previous post, sorry) were only able to hit about half of them. Because it's free, I find myself drinking too much cheap white wine and mediocre beer. I don't even like to drink, but it's in every gallery. When I have my show I'll have good wine, Heineken and soft drinks. Might even have a cheese and fruit tray. Then again, people are slobs....

There was the usual variety of truly beautiful work as well as the amateurish crap that astonishes me, leaving me wondering how it ever made it into a gallery.

Wonderful large paintings on metal by Piet van den Boog (Amsterdam). His wife was lovely, she chatted me up.

Incredibly detailed paper mosaic work. Thousands of tiny pieces of paper making this piece. So beautiful and labor intensive. Sorry, no artist name.

Detail from above. Every tiny leaf a single piece of paper. Amazing.

This is the kind of crap that makes me scratch my head and wonder WTF? By Jonathan Lasker. Please, I beg someone to explain this to me, and how he ever got a show.

Crap painting #2 from Lasker's "early works". Seriously? Someone please explain this to me.