"Daddy...Where do artists come from?"

It was a slightly skewed bit of synchronicity that, on my last birthday several friends came to my house to view a series of new paintings that I was preparing for an exhibition. One of these friends, Matthew Traeger, shares the same birthdate. Matthew now lives about 100 miles away and we do not see one another very often, but our relationship is one of those cherished bonds where, despite the amount of time between seeing one another, when we eventually meet it is as though little or no time has passed.

Artist and Social Worker, Matt Traeger. Photo by Stuart Dummit.

I gifted Matthew on that particular date with a print of a manipulated photo (seen above) that I had taken of him at our last meeting. He, in turn, gave me a wonderful multi-function portable light show and a poster of Klaus Nomi.

I had no idea who Klaus Nomi was.

Matthew, of course, came prepared to enlighten us all about the alien invader disguised as a New Wave performance artist. He gave us all an abbreviated bio and offered up a sample of a CD of one of Klaus Nomi's performances.

Now, Matthew is a social worker. He studied Criminal Justice when he was in college here in Columbia, oh, so many years ago. Matthew is also one of the best artists that I know. Although he produces very few traditional "artifacts," his true canvas is, indeed, himself. Case in point: he arrived that particular day wearing black trousers adorned with randomly placed patches of hot pink fun-fur. Back in the 80s he used to arrive at music performances that I and my musical cohorts were giving completely wrapped in transparent yellow plastic that was sewn together with copper wire. Matthew also has a way of transforming his immediate surroundings and living environment into an open ended art event. For a while, again, back in the 1980s, when one visited him in his apartment, one would find oneself in a black light illuminated cave; a room transformed by the use of black plastic, Styrofoam and various found objects.

Yes, Matthew Traeger is an extraordinary artist and, the most fabulous thing about him and his art is that he goes about it as though there were no other way to exist. The work itself exists, despite it's blatant artifice, as though it were meant to be. And now he was exposing me to another obscure yet seemingly important figure in the recent past's artistic landscape.

And so it was that weeks later as I thumbed through a newly purchased copy of Art in America, what should I see but a picture of, yes, Klaus Nomi -!

So, now I'm mulling over a question in my head: Where do artists come from?