What had happened to him over the years? Once he was running around the studios of New York, working non-stop to meet the next gallery exhibit and from there the drugs to stay up all night. The sex and the fun and the money beginning to come in, he became the bon vivant of the studio set. That was over 10 years ago and now he sat there thinking, the brush now resting on the easel as he said out loud, “success had ruined me.” He was like some sort of Bono wannabe, forced to paint for causes and always going out with syncophants and toadies who worshipped and adored him work. …show more content…
It was of a lover from long ago with distended features all painted out of proportion and then brought down to earth in muted reds. A cigarette with a gold tipped filter mixed in with the hand(s) that gripped it looking back forlornly at the viewer. It had established a then record auction of $11 million and had made him. A record for a living artist and he was then young, watching the Japanese and Chinese eagerly buy up anything he