Famouses

New York City is great because you can share a sidewalk with Timothée Chalamet or Dua Lipa. Does this impact my life in any way? No, as these people are not famous to me. Of course they are celebrities, but the best part about seeing Robert Pattinson at a bar is telling people you’ve seen Robert Pattinson at a bar.

Fangirling depends on the girl and for this girl, famous artists really do the trick. In both instances that I’ve encountered an art world a-lister, I was a hot mess. Sweating, face red, shaking, heart pounding so hard you can see it—as if I’m giving a presentation during a class in another language while stoned.

This first happened to me when I met Marta Minujín—I shouldn’t have to explain who that is, and I won’t. When she came into my place of work (an art gallery) my team thought it would be funny to introduce her to me despite my protests. It was only until they saw my corporeal reactions that they believed my fear of famouses. But my suffering and wild discomfort was worth it for Minujín to tell me that she thought I was, “so pretty.”

More recently, and at my own hand, I saw THE Judy Chicago at a coffee shop. She sat in the window completely unbothered while I stared at her from the other side of the glass. More surprising than Judy Chicago being at a Think Coffee on Bowery, is that nobody at the Think Coffee on Bowery knew who Judy Chicago was. But Judys like this don’t come around more than once. In an out of body experience, I stood by the door while the tiny alien moving my robot-shell of a body approached Chicago and her husband and proceeded to tell her that she is so important to the art world and that I am a huge fan. She was skeptical when I asked if she was indeed Ms. Judy Chicago, but smiled at my praise.

Now one last thing and then I swear to god I’ll shut up about this forever, but the same week I met Chicago, a friend had to upstage me and meet Cindy Sherman so it was all for nothing.