The Relative Merits of Fame

Seemingly well on my way to achieving my goal of being the pre-eminent portrait painter of the 21st Century, it may be worthwhile to pause and reflect on fame. In a nutshell, it's not all it's cracked up to be--assuming of course you are wearing underwear. Which I am. Shorty boxers.

Anyway, I had assumed that more people would stare at me on the street; buy me beers at the Peter McManus cafe; offer to sleep with me. None of this has happened.

The reason I bring the whole thing up is that my Dick Grasso on Wall Street initiative has struck a chord with the media. In the last 24 hours, the story has appeared in the electronic edition of The New York Times (be still my heart--honestly); the New York Post, both print and electronic editions (but with whom I'm no longer speaking due to a snarky comment on the web version); and two of my favorite websites: gawker and the gothamist.

Text from a rather thoughtful NYTimes would be this:

Wall Street chiefs are often buyers of art, but rarely the subject of it. Nevertheless, an artist named Geoffrey Raymond says he found inspiration in the legal battle between Richard Grasso, the former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, and Eliot Spitzer, the New York attorney general. Mr. Raymond has created a rather arresting portrait of Mr. Grasso, which he is hawking on the sidewalk outside the exchange where Mr. Grasso once worked. The al fresco exhibition comes as Mr. Grasso continues to fight Mr. Spitzer’s efforts to force him to give back part of the $140 million pay package he received as the head of the exchange.

Called “Big Dick I (Hundred Million),” the portrait shows a frowning Mr. Grasso with bulging eyes and white squiggles that seem to orbit around his head. The painting is also for sale on eBay, as DealBreaker.com pointed out yesterday, with a minimum bid of $2,500. (As of early Wednesday, there were no takers.)

“Richard Grasso is either a hero or a villain, plus he has an interesting looking head,” Mr. Raymond said in a press release about his portrait that was posted on the Gothamist blog.

The reaction from Wall Street’s workers seems to be generally positive. “Just about everyone had something nice to say about Grasso,” Mr. Raymond told The New York Post. “I’m surprised how well liked he was.”

Mr. Raymond gives a minute-by-minute (or nearly so) rundown of his day on Wall Street on his blog, Year of Magical Painting. A sample entry from yesterday at 12:21: “Lovely visit from NYSE security guys. Once I explain what’s up, they really couldn’t be any nicer.”

I would add that dealbreaker.com actually broke the story, and I particularly liked their mention of eater.com's sobriquet: "The mad portraitist of 7th Avenue."