Artistic Superheroes

Today one of my teachers, Barbara Dilley, presented her artistic lineage and history to us. It was quite fascinating--she used to be in league with some of the biggest names in post-modernism. She was a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Troupe, and she showed us video of their work that was sound-tracked live by John Cage, and one of the pieces had film design by Stan Brakhage. It was quite interesting to watch these artists at work in the 60's, making work not unlike what we are doing today, and getting just as little respect and money for it. Of course today at least some of them are "famous", in that we study what they were doing and the influence it had on the art forms they were working in. Barbara Dilley herself never made a living as an artist, she had to keep side jobs as a waitress until she started teaching at Naropa in the 70's. And she left her first child with his father in order to keep pursuing her art. I would like to think that we live in an age where women and men have learned how to work together to support both their careers and their families, or that at least I have what I need in order to do that. Who knows--it is a definite challenge that us "dancer" types face, especially women. There has to be an order to things in order to live a sensible life as an artist, and the questions "when will I be able to quit my day job?" or "when will I have health insurance?" must come before "when to have a child?". At least it seems that way...it was wonderful and sad at the same time to see Barbara's life laid out like that--she had so much "success" in terms of recognition, she worked with some huge names, and yet she had to sacrifice so much it seems. But she is very at peace with herself--one senses this as soon as you meet her. I feel that her generation did a lot of experimenting, and that my generation is in this amazing position to be able to learn from the outcome of their experiments, both with their artistic work and their personal lives. I take my hat off to all of those anarchistic artists who have come before me, to all of the children of the 60's who had to learn for the first time what would happen when women experimented with their own power in new ways, to all whose findings inform our work today.
Okay, it is now time to go because I have another artistic superhero to meet; Charlie Kaufman!
If the name doesn't ring a bell, its because screenwriters are sadly neglected in the world of celebrity idols. But everybody knows his films--some of the most brilliant of our time. Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Being John Malkovich, to name a few.
Charlie will be at CU tonight presenting his new film, which has not even been released yet, for FREE. CU makes us Naropa kids look like paupers, but at least we get to take advantage of their resources every now and again.
I will report if anything mind-bending occurs, and in the meantime go and look up your own artistic superheroes and find out how they got where they did--that is your life changing assignment for the night.