Do You Know The Big Red Fan?

Having lunch with Stanley was exciting and nerve racking at the same time. I wanted to appear intelligent and sophisticated even though I was just a heavy metal kid from Oklahoma. Along with Stanley, I was having lunch with Stanley's attorney and one of his friends. The menu that I had looked at with Melba the previous day was from the upscale restaurant that was on the top floor of the bank building I was now in. They had a delivery service within the building, so this was where everyone in the office ate most of the time. I had selected the fried shrimp. When I was in my early twenties, I was a bit of a food prude. I was not adventurous and I didn't want to be told to try something new. I remember shrimp being the safest thing on the limited menu. Now I'm the opposite of that. 

So there I am eating lunch trying to hold up my end of the conversation with these three men of the world when the conversation turns to art. I told them that I had been studying advertising and art history in school, but I was looking for something more meaningful. They thought it was great that I wasn't impressed with what art school had to teach. Stanley chimed in casually as he ate his asparagus, "Art history? What do you think of the painting The Red Fan by the Japanese painter Ahiro Takamoto? I stopped eating shrimp and my mind started racing through the catalog of pictures that I had seen of paintings with red fans in them. The only one I could come up with was from an Italian painter. I second guessed myself and thought, "Maybe that guy was Japanese instead of Italian." I told Stanley, "I really like that piece. I saw it in one of my art history books." Stanley just mumbled, nodded and continued with his lunch. His lawyer, however, had a smirk on his face as though he was a cat that had just trapped a helpless mouse. I knew then that I had been duped. When I realize that I have been made fun of, I usually clam up, run away and never talk to that person again. This time it was different. Art was too important to run away. This was too important to let a smarmy lawyer dissuade me from my right to make a mark on the art world.  I later found my art history book and discovered that I originally knew what I was talking about. The painter was Italian and "red fan" was in the title of the piece. I just wanted to impress them by knowing what they knew. Once again, I had learned a life lesson at the hands of SM3, which is "Don't bullshit!" Since that day, whenever I think I may know what I'm talking about, but I really don't, I just stay quiet and get as much out of the conversation as I can. There are plenty of know-it-all people in the world. Me trying to be another one might upset the balance of life, and nobody wants that. There is some credence to the adage, "Better to be silent and thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt." - King Solomon. 
I made it through lunch with a bit of an ego bruise, but Stanley didn't seem to care one way or the other. As I was leaving, he stopped me and said he enjoyed my company and he wanted me to put my imagination to work. He said, "On Wednesday, I need you to paint a bird to look like a fish." At this point, I knew the weird had begun and I couldn't have been happier. I headed to the library to look up bird fish or fish birds. Imagination...ON.

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 Giovanni Costa - An Odalisque with a Red Fan