Flippers and Caulifower Revisited

I never cease to be amazed by people I meet in the Northbrook area. Last night's crowd at the library art presentation included people who have come to hear about all five artists, but also included first timers who came just because of their interest in Dalí.

After years of working with adolescents, it is still a delightful adventure to work with adults. They listen and at least feign interest---although I do catch the occasional teacher texting or checking e-mail during my BER seminars. Even adults, however, "say the darndest things." Dalís' paintings are immensely complicated and often include myriad optical illusions. As I was explaining a painting, a woman raised her hand and asked "Are you making up all these stories or did you do research?" I calmly replied that I did, in fact, research everything and wasn't giving any personal opinions. The funny part was looking at the faces of other people who were clearly astounded that someone would ask such a question. Guess that woman never developed that adult filter that keeps most of us from saying whatever pops in our head. She'd probably be a great surrealist since surrealism is often based on "what just pops into our heads"!

When looking at optical illusions everyone's brain works differently. Some folks easily see both pictures in an optical illustion, others just can't. Middle school kids will exclaim "I see it!" or will blurt out "Show me! I don't get it!". Middle school kids eagerly move to another location when I suggest that they might see the illusion better from some other perspective. The adults last night all assured me that they did, in fact, see all the illusions and no one ever left their chair. I don't believe them! Adults just won't admit they don't get something.

After the presentation I was first approached by a young man displaying traits of Asperger's syndrome. He wanted information on all the books I had on display. When I suggested he just copy the title, author, publisher etc. right then, he determinedly requested that I send the information to him. It was obvious that his brain just works differently and he couldn't wrap himself around the idea of writing down information. He has been a faithful attendee and has been very interested in each artist....just approaches things in different ways.

Then a young couple who had been to Dalí's home in Figueres, Spain shared their enthusiasm and details about the crazy home. That was fun!

Then an older man told me that he had a Dalí drawing and wondered if I knew how he could find out if it was authentic. (There are lots of Dalí forgeries out there.) I laughed to myself. As though I know ANYTHING about owning fine art! Definitely out of my league.

The final conversation was with an attractive older woman who told me she owns the twelve paintings representing the twelve tribes of Israel that Dalí made at the request of the Israeli government at the time the nation was established in 1948! She went on at length explaining how Dalí researched the history of each tribe by reading the Talmud (her words) and how each painting reflects the different personality of each tribe. She explained how Dalí incorporated authentic views of the Israeli terrain...which, incidently, really resemble Dalí's beloved Catalonian terrain. She had wondered for years about the value of these paintings and had finally, last week, had them evaluated by Sothebys. She didn't yet know the value but wondered aloud what she should do with them.

I, of course, stood there with my mouth agape! I think Ken and I are wildly extravagant when we hire someone to wash our windows. (This expense, of course, is MUCH less than we'd pay in divorce attorney's fees if we had to wash our windows ourselves. We tried that in year one of our marriage and it was ugly!) We are incredibly prosperous because we were able to buy a DVR this year. Unbelievably, we now own three cars. Somehow our comfortable economic situation pales in comparison to this woman calmly telling me about the multi-million dollar treasures in her home.

I'm not in any way jealous of this woman. I'm just blown away by the utter calmness with which some people are able to talk about possessions or opportunities that are so beyond my reach.

I'm also blown away by the collective wisdom and experience that's in any group. We sure can't judge what's in people's minds or experience from just looking at a group of casually dressed folks in the library auditorium on a random Tuesday evening!