CONFESSANDO

Six months before receiving my masters degree in fine arts from UCLA I had an unexpected visitor to the Silverlake studio I shared with two of my classmates. Dressed in an immaculately tailored, dusky grey Senza Greggi suit and switching romance languages into a slim silvery cell phone, Vico Pater changed my life forever.

He saw my work at a small group show held in a one-car garage on La Cienaga that was named Mirage 16 just for the night of the opening. He was struck, he said, by the ferocious irony of my ideas. There was no mention of the flattering photo that appeared in the press package that featured me in lavender hot pants and a tank top. (My roommate said it couldn’t hurt and indeed it didn’t).

Pater invited me to show 15 pieces in his booth at the upcoming St. Gallen Art Fair. The fact that I didn’t have 15 pieces didn’t seem to bother him.

The work sold out before the opening and I have been an “art star” ever since.