Unknown - Posed For Pleasure

And Armand nods and smiles, redfaced in his delight, as she falls into his arms.

She knew it, she knew it, she knew it!

There was Irene, then there was Darlene, and now-“I was walking along Central Park West, heading for the Metropolitan to visit ‘Irene I’ as I do from time to time. I had just come from the gym and lunch-a late lunch, actually. I had stopped in on the way up from downtown at Ray’s for pizza. I decided to have the pepperoni, two slices because I was hungry. I could have gone for three, but…”

Jessica tunes him out.

She is on the verge of realizing her dreams and this fucking yutz is standing here informing her of his stomach contents this afternoon.

“… and suddenly, it struck me.

“What was I doing, visiting the past, when right here before me, right in front of my nose-”

She pulls back from him gently,. Positioning herself right in front of his nose.

“Was the answer! “So I called Philippe, my canvas guy, I went over to the art supply store and the camera shop, and I spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking paint, putting stuff away, taking delivery of the canvasses and cursing myself for a fool, for taking so long to listen to myself.

“I mean, here I am, discussing aesthetics and the artistic process, instead of being in the midst of the process itself! “If only I had seen it before I began my lecture series!”

“Maybe you simply lacked the right… inspiration back then.”

Begging the question. Fishing for compliments.

Wanting to hear him say it, to give credit where credit is due.

“No, no, that wasn’t it.

“It was more a case of not being able to see the forest for the trees.

“That’s it, it was exactly like that! “I had concentrated so hard on peering in and in and into the depths of the individual that I totally ignored the world of the common denominator.

“All of my work to date is defective! “It’s like reading a fucking dictionary, looking at the goddam things! “You can read the meanings writ therein, but they tell you nothing, nothing, nothing of the outside world, of reality itself! “A cute, clever trick, they were, and that’s all they were, all they are, wherever they are, which is out of my sight, which is all to the good.

“We must look through the individual, past the individual. We most proceed from the particular to the general. We must go beyond the real, beyond our perception of the real to that which makes a statement, which expresses a truth to which each of us can relate, to the interlace, the confrontation between the• individual and reality, to the manner in which we handle and fail to handle the problem of self and other.”

“I’ll get my things and clear out.”

“You do that, uh…

“Jessica,” she prompts.

“Right. Of course. I tell you, when this thing came over me, it was like a bolt of lightning struck! “How many situations does an individual confront in the course of daily existence? Millions! Billions! “And what are the complexes, the reactions which are activated by such confrontation? “Fear, hatred, desire, you name it! “And underlying it all, the common thread, the drone in the bagpipe of our existence-sexuality! “The mechanism of confrontation, of the individual with the world, is that of our own sexuality.

“All encounters are fundamentally sexual, and by stripping away the veneer of society, of convention, we can reveal, we can reveal-it remains to be seen, one canvas at a time, just what it is that we can reveal.”

“To the extent that they enlighten, all perceptions are revelation,” Armand pronounces.

“If the conscious motivation of the artist is to inquire through creation, is not the purpose of art to actively receive, to absorb the answer thus elicited? “By this same logic, ladies and gentlemen, if art is integral to the artist’s life, that is, if art is not thought of merely as a spectator sport where he himself is concerned, then it follows that his purpose is not simply to hear the answer to his inquiry, not merely to hear and understand it, but to be thereby-transformed! “The true purpose of art, ladies and gentlemen, is not the end product of the effort which produced it. That is a mere by-product, a residue of the process! “The true purpose of art lies in what the artist becomes as a result of having created it.

“Art leads to perception leads to revelation leads to transformation-transformation of the artist and, to a greater or lesser extent, of the world into which it is thrust, from mind to hand to the eye of the beholder.

“How often do we hear the query, ‘What does this painting say to you, what does that sculpture do for you?’ “And in the answer to that, my friends, lies the purpose of art.

“Thus do we come full circle.

“We begin with imagination, that of the artist, that of the observer, and we end with the transformation of the imaginer.

“That is the purpose of art, that is the impact of aesthetics.

“The painting is the discarded carapace, the shed skin of the artist as he was! “And the observer, seeing this evidence of inspiration becomes himself inspired, his imagination fired up, and he himself is thereby transformed as well.

“Too much, you say? “I ask, I expect, I claim too much for art? “That’s quite all right. You do well to doubt, to question me.

‘And we know. with whom lies the burden of proof, do we not? “You have, no doubt, noticed the gentleman in the bathrobe seated here on stage.

“Those of you familiar with bodybuilding will recognize the current Mister Galaxy, Steve Xenos.

“He has been kind enough to appear here tonight to illustrate, in clear and unmistakable form, to prove, if you will that the underlying, the fundamental purpose and deepest motivation of art is in fact transformation of the artist and, by osmosis of observation, of the observer.

“If you will, Steve.”

And Steve removes his robe, to reveal himself naked, but for a g-string.

And Steve at once begins a slow posing routine, to the awed, silent appreciation of the audience, as Armand continues, “Consider the imagination of the bodybuilder, which is, in the words of the military recruiting ads, to be all that he can be, this taken in the physical, the literal sense.

“The elements of reality are the parts and the whole of his body.

“The means is exercise, the medium flesh-bone, muscle, ligament.

“The product is, of course, exactly what you see-which is, ladies and gentlemen, nothing more than the residue of what you will see.

“The snake sheds his skin and becomes renewed, transformed, annually.

“But here, here! we see that which is transformed- what? Weekly? Daily? “No! Here we see that which is transformed moment by moment, as all the bodily functions are geared, along with the mind and the will, toward this very transformation.

“The body is its own masterpiece, transformation both the purpose and the action itself-to transform by transforming, always, always dealing with the output itself.

“Here, here! we see transformation in its purest form.

“Not the transformation of stone into sculpture, of paint into painting, but of the body, the physical being, into that which is greater than itself and which, in turn, is transformed-and so on and so on, ad infinitum, forever and ever, world without end.

“The scriptures tell us, ‘Now I see as through a mirror darkly, but then face to face.”

“And so it is here.

“Many of you take what I say-all that I say-metaphorically, as though I am casting similes, speaking in parables.

“But this is not the case, I can assure you.

“Because here, here! is the unvarnished reality,. is symbol, yes, but substance as well, is both symbol and substance combined into one unarguable-thereness! “Here it is! It is real, it is right here before you, it is what it is and not otherwise! “Let’s watch for a while, let us absorb the facticity, the reality of what we here behold!”