[Continued from yesterday.]
I dropped by Landon’s spot again last week, and he seemed to be doing better; in April he had just broken up with a girlfriend. “I became a borderline alcoholic,” he said. But he found a new girlfriend who’s helping him with the business side of things, people are selling his stuff around town for him, and he’ll be part of a small group show in a couple of months put on by the Art Asylum Boston.
“We’re literally taking popular culture and applying it to popular culture,” he said, explaining the show was Star Wars themed. I expressed confusion. “Like Law and Order, but the jury is full of storm troopers,” he said, although this was just an example, not something someone had actually done. He was going to paint Han Solo pointing a gun at Luke Skywalker.
We talked again about the business side of art. “One of the things I’m dealing with is the concept of selling out,” he said. He was going through a catalog of his work recently with someone, and “the tone of my voice was the same as I’d use to ask what kind of car they want…I wonder, how is this going to affect the art I make?” he said. “I have yet to compromise my own integrity.”
(courtesy of Landon Richmond)
His life has changed a lot since he started selling his prints. When I met him in April, he had told me that selling his art had really changed his way of interacting with people: “When I first came out here, I was really socially awkward.” Now everything seemed to be going well, “but all the while, I’m looking back and wondering, ‘Is it legit?’…Sometimes it feels contrived.”
A customer looked at the prints arrayed on the sidewalk. “Come on, ask me a question!” Landon yelled.
(courtesy of Landon Richmond)
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