Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Artist and Beret Aficionado Mark Adams (and Walther)

It's been said "find something that you love to do and you'll never have to work a day in your life."  That notion has worked for Mark Adams for nearly forty years.  From his early flirtation with cubist abstractions past his heavily Dutch influenced figurative work of the early 70's into the theatrical world of dancers and mimes and onto the recontexturalized appropriated fashion series of the late 80's and all the while including commissioned portraits -- in the words of Jerry Garcia:  " What a long, strange trip it's been!"
Mark Adams is a true beret aficionado and has been for decades, against the tides, opinions and sniggering comments of the beret-ignorant that form such a large part of the population. I have read and heard some great beret related stories from Mark and take the liberty to quote one from his blog below:
Uncle Bob with Beret, by Mark Adams
"I have spoken of my dear Uncle Bob in previous blog entries. Mentor, friend, patron, it was he who long ago bestowed upon me my first beret. I have worn one since I was 16. Coming to grips with looking like a cliché in my teens was tough, but my friends soon got used to it. When Bob comes to Baltimore for a visit, he, too, is wont to wear one, which makes for some sniggering and tittering among the people. For my 50th birthday, my wife bought a gross of black berets and gave them out to my friends. Seeing 80 plus people dressed in black turtle necks and berets was something else. It looked like a giant poetry slam from the 50’s or a Maynard G. Krebs convention. Very cool, daddy-o."
Walther, the drunken Dachshund

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