Chasing Tyler (The Artist)

Tyler: teaching assistant/performance artist/lunatic.

Let me start this by saying I have never met Tyler. I've heard about him. I've read about him. I've seen him. But I have never actually met Tyler.

When I first saw Tyler he was dressed in this 19th century get-up complete with waistcoat, silver-rimmed glasses and huge bushy beard (which I later learned is laboriously pasted on every morning). Soon after, Nancy (my wonderfully boisterous, half Jewish half Polish (?), Detroit born, ex-polka player drawing teacher...yea I'll be writing something on her soon) explains to the class, "Tyler is Gustave Courbet this year! Well it certainly is a change from the whole zebra thing, THANK GOD! Did I tell you about the time that Tyler and I went to a restaurant..." As Nancy finished her story about zebras, artists and bad waitresses, I turned to one of my classmates to find out exactly what Nancy meant by "this year" and "zebra". Though she didn't have much more information than I, my questions were answered two weeks later in an article on Tyler that I found in one of our campus newspapers.

Tyler is in the sixth year of his performance art project. Every year his wardrobe takes on a different theme that he somehow faithfully follows for 365 days. It first started as a project in his last year of college when he decided to become the Pink Panther for a year. Tyler dyed his whole wardrobe pink and whatever he couldn't dye was thrown out...and so it went.

Year One: Pink Panther- all pink all the time.

Year Two: Clothes bought by other people- Tyler gave about $545 to 4 different faculty members at his school and asked them to buy his wardrobe for the year (one person actually bought all women's clothes).

Year Three: Catholic School Uniform- Tyler went to Catholic school for a big portion of his life and his uniform was red, blue, or white polo and khakis (he started this one on the fourth of July)

Year Four: Clothing only bought at thrift stores- Self-explanatory...personally I think this one is a complete cop-out.

Year Five: Tyler the Zebra- black and white striped...everything and a floppy black mohawk.

Year Six: Gustave Courbet- 19th century painter that Tyler admires. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Courbet (I had to look him up)

So why do I care? Because Tyler is an artist and he's crazy. I'm an artist (or I'd like to be one soon) and I'm crazy and I happen to love a challenge. I've been thinking about Tyler and his project for a while and I've been wondering how hard it would be to wear the same thing everyday for an extended period of time. I've already been known for my duo-chrome style palette so how hard would it be to drop it down to just one? I took my time, talked it over with some people, and made the decision to follow in Tyler's footsteps this summer. I will be wearing black everyday for the next two months. So far it's been pretty difficult seeing that my monetary situation does not match my ambition but hopefully that'll be taken care over the next couple of weeks. Besides, now I have a legitimate excuse for blowing all of my paycheck on clothes... it's just one of the sacrifices I have to make for my artwork ;) .

Until Next Time,
-The Artist
Back to Black
Amy Winehouse
Back to Black