Talked Portraiture With Chuck Close at the White House

As you know, I was invited to White House for SXSL.  I have many good pictures of what was a real fun day. But I wanted to share this one in particular 'cause I am still processing how awesome meeting Chuck Close was.

So when I saw Chuck Close on the South Lawn, I realized that I had to introduce myself. As an artist he has always been a favorite, if not the favorite, though its sort of impossible to rank something like that.  I have long imitated many of his concepts in my own art.  I even designed my fourth robot to fit large canvases so it could paint portraits on the scale of his work.

While I wasn't expecting to be starstruck when I went up to introduce myself, I was. I didn't know what to say so I just told him I was a portrait artist to which he replied that he was sorry to hear that as it was a horrible line of work to be in. Then we chatted about portraiture briefly where he made a couple of other jokes before asking to see some of my work.  I wasn't expecting that, either his interest in my work, or his compassionate humor.  I showed him some portraits of my family on my phone, said my thanks for taking the time to talk with me, then went on my way.

I wanted to talk to him longer but at same time didn't want to be a harasser.

We Just got invited to the... um... White House

We just got an invitation to the, um... White House.

So, WOW! We just received the following invitation...

Looks like we are going to have to step up the schedule to have our Neural Jet prototype working in the next couple of weeks.  It is a little ambitious, but we just had a design meeting and worked out a plan that would have a good portion of the functionality ready for an interactive exhibit.  

Wish us luck as we had no choice but to accept the invitation. Now we are aiming to amaze and impress at the inaugural SXSL Festival of Ideas, Art, and Action.