Brian Belott

Brian wins the award for funnest studio visit EVER, past, present, or future!

Beauteous cacti paining! Apparently I am not the only painter of cacti East of the Mississippi. 

Brian explained that he makes paintings in opposition to other works he makes. Brian made these paintings as a reaction to these Agnes Martin inspired grid paintings he's been painting. Among his other influences are Jeff Koons and Liberace! I love that he brought up Koons, because although Koons isn't typically cited as a reference by artists, like Warhol, he changed and influenced the way we look and think about EVERYTHING and also because I think about Koons all the time, too. After seeing the Koons retrospective at the MCA, the summer after grad school, all my work changed. Jeff Koons taught me to have freedom and fun with my work, the way I used to before I went to art school!

In terms of housekeeping, Brian could give me a run for my money, which I didn't think was at all possible.

Brian is wildly entertaining and well versed in many subjects, and we talked about everything from Dieter Roth to Bergman and Fellini. By the time we reached the topic of Woody Allen, we were definitely in trouble, since each of us has seen every Woody Allen movie made at least 20 times.

Diana and I had so much fun at Brian's that we probably never would have left, had we not have had another studio visit lined up afterwards. Each time we attempted leaving, we were sucked back into the ebullient vortex that is Brian Belott and his immediate surroundings. At around our sixth or seventh attempt at leaving, Brian showed us his art collection which I did not photograph. It was actually one of the best collections I've seen in a long time, and he showed us the most amazing Billy Grant drawing that I've ever seen and still can't stop thinking about.