MOR E M OA N I N G
of artists’ paint. I recognise it even though I’m not around it much. Elephant shit is another smell like that. Ushio introduced himself. He was a small man, eighty-three years old with white fluffy hair, similar to my auntie Nora’s, but unlike her, he had it in a flat Mohican. His hands were covered in so many specks of colour that when he put out his hand to shake mine I thought he was offering me some Skittles. I tried having a chat about his art but didn’t get anywhere, as although he had been living in New York for almost fifty years, his accent was still strong and with my northern accent we couldn’t make much sense of each other. I like being around people and having company, but I don’t always want to chat so I quite like meeting people who can’t speak English as it gets rid of all the small talk. Han Solo had it right knocking about with Chewbacca – someone to watch his back and help him out without having to discuss what he got up to over the weekend.
In 1961, Henri Matisse’s painting
‘Le Bateau’ was hung upside down at
MoMA for 47 days before anyone noticed.
The fact that Ushio couldn’t understand me didn’t matter anyway, as it was the art that was going to join us together. He got me to help mix up some paint so I could have a go trying out his painting technique. Only two colours were 36
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