When I met Peter Beard

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I had been a fan of Peter Beards work for a long time and I loved Dan Eldon as well. Now I mix them up but it’s because I just found their books next to each other when I thought about showing this to you. I just think some of their stuff is similar. And both have a deep connection to Africa. I’m sure there are loads of words about their similarities and all but I’m not going into it here. They did fantastic journals and shared a love for Africa.

After I traveled around South America for half a year in 1999-2000 I ended the trip in New York. Me and my ex boyfriend stayed with a spoken words guy in Flatbush out in Brooklyn and seized the city I had dreamed about for so long during the days. One day we entered Peter Beards gallery/studio in Soho and I was in heaven. After like five minutes we got to know Peters assistant and got invited to the basement where I guess Peter at the time made a lot of work. I think he kind of loved drawing on photo’s with blood. So they had like big buckets of it standing around as well as photos and drawings everywhere. You can imagine how cool and very New Yorkish this felt to us then. The assistant loved my bald head and took some snapshots of me. Suddenly we got invited to lunch to meet Peter. Apparently another assistant had run to Peter where he was going to lunch around the corner at Ciprianis, another place I had also heard about but never seen, there Peter had already painted on my Polaroid and invited us over.

It was weird. I had been backpacking for months, wearing the same clothes and going around like a hippie. Suddenly I’m at this posh place where this great artist is eating with his entourage. It was like in the movies. The entourage was part assistants, part great looking girls, some French art dealers etc. They where loud and funny. Very much heey look at us we can do whatever. One of them even blew his nose on the table cloth. That kind of attitude. We didn’t even had the money for drinking a glass of water. I felt like such a small town girl. Looking past the whole cliche entourage thing I really liked Peter. He was very cool and sweet. We got invited to all kind of fun stuff with him the days we had left in town. And I loved hearing his stories. I mean he had seen alot and been everywhere. This is a guy who had been friends with Francis Bacon, got run down by an Elephant and found Iman.


I even did a photo shoot with him. I got painted in gold. I’m sorry to say that this is one of the only photo’s I have left and it’s not taken by Peter. I never got to see any of his results of it either. It was a fun evening and then we went back to Belgium where I lived at the time. And I never dared to ask for that first polaroid. But is still a nice memory to have. The reason I started to think about this when I was listening to Alec Baldwins podcast – Here’s the thing with Peter in it. Also if you like Girls – don’t miss Alecs interview with Lena Dunham. I got such a girl crush on her. Damn she’s cool. Listen here.

xxx
Isabelle

If you want to know more about Peter And his art also check out his page at artsy.net/artist/peter-beard

8 Comments

Join the discussion and tell us your opinion.

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Carrie Rosalind
January 29, 2013 at 03:40

I am slightly embarrassed to say that I haven’t seen Peter’s work before (definitely going to check it out now!), but you told such an awesome story about meeting him. What a cool experience!

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Isabelle McAllister
January 29, 2013 at 13:03
– In reply to: Carrie Rosalind

Don’t be embarrassed – it’s impossible to keep count of everything in this big world! And thanks for the support! xx isabelle

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Elena
January 29, 2013 at 19:13

Hi Isabelle! I am too a big fan of the show “Girls”… Lena Dunham is just so real and fun. NRP has a couple of interviews with her. This one from Fresh Air is great: http://www.npr.org/2012/05/07/152183865/lena-dunham-addresses-criticism-aimed-at-girls – Check it out…
I love the picture of you… You can really rock that look… Just fantastic.

I really enjoy reading your blog. I get tons of inspiration.

Cheers

Elena

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Isabelle McAllister
January 29, 2013 at 22:12
– In reply to: Elena

Elena,
thanks for the link gonna look straight away!
And I’m so glad you like the blog”!

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Lisa
January 29, 2013 at 23:51

Love that kind of stories!

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Marianne
January 30, 2013 at 14:04

I love ” Girls” too, and have a girl crush on Lena, and now you too. Girl you be smoking hot.

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Florence
January 30, 2013 at 15:46

Isabelle – I can’t believe that I’m seeing Dan Eldon’s book on your blog, my favourite ever book. I picked it up in a bookshop and flicked through a couple of pages and knew that it was for me, the only one in the shop and the only one that I’ve ever seen since. It kindles in me dreams of zooming off in a landrover with a name into this magical adventure portrayed in his photos. I have never spoken to anyone else who has heard of Dan Eldon so can’t help but comment! I haven’t, however, heard of Peter Beard and will definitely check him out – thank you!

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Eva
January 30, 2013 at 22:33

Loved this post!