Meeting your heroes
You know what they say about never meeting your heroes, because they will disappoint you, because you will come to find out that they’re just like you, or worse? Well, f**k that.
So, a couple of weeks ago, I got married, no big deal. And, a couple of months prior to that, my brother arranged for our favorite Parisian street artist, Jordane Saget, to draw something for us. Very big deal, especially because he didn’t simply create one artwork, he also drew in the streets all around us the day we got married. Like we were f**king rock stars. Which got me thinking that, for my brother’s wedding (no set date yet, just thinking out loud), the only way to top that is to contact Iggy Pop. I hope my brother gets married soon.
Anyway, as we slowly understood what was going on the day of, we were increasingly blown away by what my brother had done, and by what Jordane Saget had done. By the time I saw his signature on the back window at the venue later on in the evening (it was located next to the bathroom and I had had no time to go earlier because, duh, it was our wedding), I was almost as shocked as when I said “yes” at City hall a couple of hours before. And I don’t mean it was a shock saying “yes” per se, just that it was a big deal. A very big deal. I love you, honey.
Back to art. I asked my brother, who was in contact with Jordane, if we could meet him to essentially say thank you. Interestingly, even though his artwork has been all over the streets of Paris for several years now, and he’s got a proper following online, he very rarely appears on camera or even in photographs, as if to highlight that his main means of expression is the art itself. Which is a pretty sound idea, when you are as talented as he is. But the other consequence, especially for an obsessive guy like me, is that you keep building up the man in your mind since you have no frame of reference to attach him to.
Then came this weekend, when we finally got to meet him at his workshop, which incidentally happens to be located a mere 10 minutes away from where we live — on a day we would walk slowly. There he showed up, incredibly nice and casual, so simple and humble that you would almost forget that the man is fast becoming a major force in the art world. And we didn’t talk about art all that much: turns out he’s almost as interested in philosophy as he is in drawing, and I will readily admit that I’m better at the former (don’t check out my drawing, just take my word for it).
In the end, my wife, my brother and I spent an entire evening with Jordane, talking art, philosophy, literature, creation, inspiration, life and all those things in-between. And I got out of that a little shaken:
Wife: So, happy you came?
Me: Kinda… Now I can say I’ve met a great artist…
Wife: He hasn’t heard you sing…
Me: Exactly…
In short, always meet your heroes.