An Unfinished Portrait of an Artist

Nina Y. Lee
22 September 2010

Crimson, Gold, Lavender, Grey, Blue. Color! Color is a very essential part to practically every painter; it brings life to almost any dull or boring image. Painter and director Julian Schnabel creates a colorful remembrance of his friend, Artist Jean Michael Basquiat in the autobiographical film, Basquiat. The film depicts life for the young painter in the ruthless streets of New York. Although for this film the colorful paintings of Basquiat were not the only lively fixation in this seemingly tragic film about Jean Michael Basquiat, an artist who rose too fast. Schnabel designs sharp, vivid images scented of downtown New York in the 1980's, he creates a beautiful portrait of Basquiat, but fails to go into Depth of the main character which left me with an empty feeling.
The movie begins with Basquiat as a little boy in a somewhat magical setting. This whole scene threw me off track because I had no idea what was going on, but I assumed the questions I had about it would be answered through the progression. Fast forward ten years and we see a much older Basquiat (Jeffrey Wright) submerge out of a box into a New York City park. This “out of the box” scene for me foreshadowed the uniqueness Basquiat’s art career will embed. But it still left me with the question, why did he wind up sleeping in a cardboard box in a park? I recall being told that Basquiat came from a middle-class family. He then ends up going to a local diner, and begins to “paint” using the diner’s table as his canvas and a bottle of pancake syrup as his paint. His eyes wonder to find a beautiful waitress (Gina Cardinale), he gets her attention and after several encounterments they move in together. We witness Basquiat hustle to get his painting seen, whether through his graffiti or by selling miniature art pieces to the renowned artist Andy Warhol ( David Bowie). Through some coincidental events Basquiat ends up being “discovered”. Through this he becomes very close friends to revolutionary artist Andy Warhol. But the road to fame is not all glitz and glamour for Basquiat as we see him struggle from with his addiction to drugs, to him not wanting to be called a “black” painter. I wanted to know more about Basquiat, who was the man behind the paintings? Why did he paint? Why did he not want to be known as a black painter? So many unsolved questions.
Each of the actors intricately hyperbolized the character they were playing, but for the sake of the film, it works very well. Basquiat vicariously lives through Jeffrey Wright, the Tony Award winner for his role as the nurse Belize in ''Angels in America,'' and a star of ''Bring In da Noise, Bring In da Funk,''. Wright did an illustrious job at capturing Basquiat’s personality perfectly! Alongside an extensive cast including: David Bowie, Dennis Hopper, Benicio Del Toro and Parker Posey. Even Courtney Love appears briefly as an unusually confident groupie. The characters all did a great job at telling the story, alongside some of the hip film shots Schnabel invents.
The shots Schnabel uses in the movie are energetic and lively, almost allowing one to forget the heartbreaking tone that lies within the subtext of the film. Schnabel uses the music as another way of expression. The songs chosen seem to be a part of Basquiat, from Rolling Stones' "Waiting on a Friend" to Henyrk Górecki's third symphony. It brings you into him almost dream like, the songs flow as like if they were being painted by Basquiat himself.
Basquiat's personal background remained obscure to me. I got very little feel for his work habits and almost no feel for his art. In one scene between Basquiat and Andy Warhol, Basquiat claims to be clean and there is a suggestion that his work has been on the decline at that point. I believe this scene incognito told us that while Basquiat used drugs his work was brilliant, when he was clean his work was lacking. Jean Michael Basquiat dies at the end of the movie from a heroin overdose. And by the end of the movie I had more questions about Basquiat than I did in the beginning.

The Shadow.

I see this little girl crying all alone on a bench

Although I cannot see her face

I see her tears

I wonder why she sits there all alone

Quiet and mellowdrone

She sits alone

Family and friends stopped to see about her

But they didnt have what her soul was searching for

Until a little boy came

He proved to be just what she needed

But just like all the others he just passed her by

Not there to stay

Over time his face fades away

But left a bruise on her heart

But the good thing about bruises is in time they’ll heal

And there she sits

Confused as to whether I should go console her

I make up my mind

Ive been watching her all this time

Guy after guy each proves to be a bigger burden on her heart

I could have stopped all of this

But instead I watched and let it happen

But im walking to her now

I can save her

From all of the pain

I can take it all away

I can bring her sunshine on the cloudiest days

I grab her and look her in the face

Startled and Shocked to what I see

That girl is me.

Wishful Thinking

Im losing gravity im falling for you
I hope you can catch me, I don’t want to be bruised
I hope you love me, I don’t want to be used.
I wish I could write you a lullaby and watch you fall asleep in my arms
We’d count sheep together like were laying on a farm.

Ode to Atalanta

Atlanta.
Oh so beautiful but don’t let it ruin you
The clubs, the art, the colleges
It can make or break you
So many chasing the same dream, thinking the same thing
The money, the cars, the clothes and especially the hoes
All that many of these “niggas know”
I wanna rap so I can get it all
But what he doesn’t know is he is set up to fall
For every rapper that made it big
There are 50,000 others who’s dream got differed
In a city of fortune and fame
So many forget their name
Now im not telling anyone to give up on their dream
But be smart, cuz in life everything aint as easy as it seems
So often the fame is glamorized, but fame to me is embellished lies
Hard work pays off some of the time

Every time I met someone new I always play this song in my head.

Oblivion

I see crime outside my window, so I close the blinds
I see you giving my love away , so I tell my eyes theyre lying
Id rather be blind than to see things my heart cannot handle
I see hungry children, so I change the channel
They say lifes a beginning, so I walk on it,
Lifes a demise, so eventually ill drown in it
I feel safe inside my window, where I can hide from my worries
I feel safe in my head, where I can make my own stories
My own endings, my own friends
No homework, No school
And If I ruled the world….oh wait I do!
But only when I put lipstick on my brain
Now back to society where my mind is in chains

Losing my Balance

I think im losing my balance cuz this boy he really had me
Sweet on my tooth like a cavity
Now when his name is mentioned I feel a rot in my stomach
But with him I thought we could summit,
But don’t fall for the beautiful lies in which others can give
Im only 19 ive barely even lived
So there are some tricks I will fall for
Like an adolescent just wanting a treat
Like a hungry person wanting to eat
I wanted you, all of you right down to your toe
See it was a short amount of time but I could tell you were different, or at least I thought so
But the absence of longevity just fooled me
As I hum love oh love stop making a fool of me
You continue to find ways to creep into my happy days
Oh my friends say you don’t need a man to be happy
But im ready for a commitment I know that may seem sappy
On to the next has never been something I didn’t know
But im constantly im done with, I want someone who with I can grow
Our love can grow high like the beanstalk, so high, others will try to tamper it
Damper it but we will pay them no mind, because when im with you I have a piece of mind,
And mine is yours, yours is mine, not moving too fast just taking our time
See my rhymes in this maybe weak, but at this point so am I




I just wish I could meet a guy whos not gone lie
See when it comes to my emotions don’t play me like a game
Its totally different when dealing with someone’s brain
I am a beautiful black woman, why am I put through so much pain
But one day ill look back and see, why we weren’t meant to be
Because ill be with someone who proves my every fanatasy known
And together we’ll laugh while reading this poem.

"A Blues for Nina" one day a man will think so highly of me to write a song/poem

Before the Sun Rises.

Let's make tonight last
Cuz once that sun briskly touches our faces, well have to go back to
our places.
Our chaotic and hectic lives
The shewrd lies
The hurt and pain of living
More receiving not enough giving
But Lets not dwell on the bad
We are here tonight, let's make this last
Ohh but the hurt and pain consumes my brain, I want to talk about the
toxic atrocities that lie ahead of me
But you kiss me on my forehead so gently
You hold me in your arms and I feel safe and secure from all hard
A living and breathing alarm
Your love all in my system
Your warm breath is felt in the back of my neck, a smell so sweet I
know I will not regret, the moment to come
And before I knew it we were done.
You held me like every man should
Carefully Caressed me like I was yours
As you touched my skin you must have strocked my heart because all
these feelings have come up like vomit this is rare for me a comit. I
feel asleep and as I woke up you were gone
Like unwritten lyrics for an unsung song
I sit in my regrets, swimming in all my tears drowned in my fears
Confusing love with lust, let me close my heart wouldn't want it to
rust.

Generation

The love you gave me I shall never experience another
No love is ever stronger than that of a mother
Always through thickness and strife,
Always there even when she is no longer a wife
As the tears run down my face, she’s always there to embrace
And every time I look into the mirror I see your beautiful face
That gives me the strength to go on
And if anything I’d like for you to experience my deep gratitude of love felt through this poem