by Joe Buffaloe
Daily Lobo
Though most modern technophiles may have forgotten the art form, I still dig paintings. I like seeing the texture of oil paint and hanging something of artistic merit on my wall.
This isn't to say I'm buying Rembrandts. Two of my favorite paintings came from alleys, where they'd been forgotten and were thus free for the taking.
The centerpiece of all the artwork in my house, though, is a 5-foot by 5-foot portrait of Vigo the Carpathian from the chest up.
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You may or may not remember "Ghostbusters 2," but that's where Vigo came to fame. In the film, an ancient painting of a bloodthirsty ruler possesses a museum curator, kidnaps a baby and floors Peter, Ray, Egon and Winston with lightning that shoots from his eyes. My painting is a replica of this one. At night, sometimes I even imagine a deep, foreboding voice chanting, "Winston, Winston ..."
I acquired the painting from student David Horowitz, who, for various reasons, was unable to store the work in his house. Now, Vigo is like a second roommate to me - you can always rely on his giant face to be glaring down at the coffee machine in the kitchen, a homicidal glint in his eyes.
But now Horowitz has decided to put the painting on the market. His asking price is $11,200.
Not only did this decision personally sadden me - I'm attached to my paintings, and Vigo really ties the kitchen together - I was also shocked at the steep cost. So I asked Horowitz, in an interview, to defend his decision.
"It's one of the master works of pop art in the postmodern era," he said.
Over a period of several hours, Horowitz explained his philosophy on art and defended the seriousness of his work.
"Vigo represented the perfect manifestation of art in 'Ghostbusters 2,'" he said. "Art is supposed to pop out of the painting at you, like it's real; Vigo actually walked out of the painting and possessed Dan Aykroyd."
Horowitz said art is also a way of encapsulating and possessing a feeling.
"Vigo is fury incarnate," he said. "I feel I've conquered that fury, that I now possess Vigo as much as Vigo possessed that European museum curator."
Art, Horowitz said, can intimidate as well as inspire.
"I don't want my art to be misunderstood - I express my love through the raw human emotion of fury," he said. "You have to take the risk of confronting that to appreciate my work. My work bothers people who can't deal with it, who can't accept that fury is inherent in life - the yin of the yang. You can't have the love without the fury."
However, there's nothing inherently violent about a face, Horowitz said.
Often, as members of a populace ignorant to the intricacies of art - the symbolism, the allusions, the trends of form and style, the traditions - ideas like Horowitz's can fly right over our heads. After all, it's just a painting, right? And "Ghostbusters 2," outside of the scene where the Statue of Liberty walks through Manhattan to the tune of Jackie Wilson's "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher," isn't a very good movie.
"This painting transcends the movie," Horowitz said.
I also raised a concern that he was infringing on copyright laws.
"Vigo is a symbol of all childhood terror - you can't copyright fear, can you? The fear represented by Vigo is really the terror inherent in life that we all must confront at some point. In the movie, Vigo's symbolism is implied by the pink river of slime flowing below him, which is an ectoplasm made of concentrated hatred. My painting is a reminder to find our own personal Ghostbusters, to take down the Vigo lodged in our hearts with proton packs - proton packs of empathy."
Horowitz said art can save the world.
Before parting ways, I mentioned to Horowitz that I like paintings with more colors, and that maybe he should have given Vigo a hat.
"Philistine," he replied.
Vigo, when asked what he thought of himself as a painting, did not reply.
"Vigo the Carpathian"
$11,200
Joe's Kitchen Gallery
