Andy Warhol figured everyone was now going to get their fifteen minutes of fame. We are living at a time of obsession with celebrity

By Robert Glenn, Painters Keys

Andy Warhol figured everyone was now going to get their fifteen minutes of fame. Courting celebrities and his own celebrity, he needed more time at it than that.

J.D. Salinger wrote a novel and a few short stories he didn’t want to talk about. Thus he became famous for not wanting to be famous.

We are living at a time of obsession with celebrity. People substitute celebrities for friends and acquaintances. TV heads are good enough. Question is, I know David Letterman but does he know me?

“There is much emphasis on notoriety and fame in our society,” said the noted priest/psychologist Henri Nouwen. “Our newspapers and television keep giving us the message: What counts is to be known, praised, and admired. Still, real greatness is often hidden, humble, simple, and unobtrusive. It has become difficult to trust ourselves and our actions without public affirmation. We must have strong self-confidence combined with deep humility. Some of the greatest works of art and the most important works of peace were created by people who had no need for the limelight. They knew that what they were doing was their call, and they did it with patience, perseverance, and love.”

“Fame, for a painter,” said Pablo Picasso, “means sales, gains, fortune, riches. And today, as you know, I am celebrated. I am rich.” Emerson thought fame only proof that people were gullible. Valuing study and depth of understanding, the 4th century Chinese philosopher Chuang Tzu said, “He who pursues fame at the risk of losing his self is not a scholar.” And Winslow Homer, in yet another moment of privacy, noted, “The most interesting part of my life is of no concern to the public.”

Where I live there are green shoots everywhere. Crocuses are here and even daffodils poke through. The park pathways are fresh with volunteers and there are new puppies in the district. In the daily ritual of creation, ordinary plain canvases have paint added and become something they were not. In such a place, at such a time, in such a life, perhaps we do not need to confuse things with fame.