"I Met Andy Warhol—and He Bored Me to Death" | Ep 263 with Charles Edelman

0:04So Charles, I've always wanted to understand how it is to be an artist. What is an artist's life? Like, what is the whole life cycle of an artist? And it got me thinking about, I cannot recall, who is the person that cut off their ear? And tell me about that story. Hey, Denon, honestly, I thought that we were talking for 15 days instead of 15 minutes. And I met Andy Warhol, and he was very boring to me, okay? And so 15 minutes of fame, let's go 15 days, and I want to learn about you, all right? So here we go. I wrote a book. This is Van Gogh. You know that. No woman ever wanted to marry him. And for reasons you can read in my book, you know, whatever, schizophrenic, bipolar, argumentative, poor, you name it.

0:57And you know what? Here's my book. It's selling on Amazon, and it's doing really well. It's called Crashing Waves of Passions. Okay? And for somebody like you, I'm not a negative person. This book will educate you and it might last you a long time. Because I've been an artist since I was 12 years old. And I want to show you something that's really important to me. Because I had COVID from some of my students. And I don't teach much anymore. I paint and draw a lot. This is an artist named Susan Valadon. Okay. And in my book, I came up with the idea that there were three artists that knew each other about 1887, 1888 in Paris, near the Moulin Rouge.

1:49And Van Gogh was one of them, and Toulouse-Lautrec, and she's the other. And she is a role model for young artists, as she was the first artist accepted into an important salon in 1895. and then on top of that you don't have to buy my book i'm not pushing it but it would be nice it's 10 bucks on amazon and so i put them in new york because i used to be a new york city artist went to graduate school there and here they are at the museum of modern art and they're looking there's toulouse-la-trek and i explain why they have these disabilities or how they overcame it so i love the way you're listening to me okay and i really appreciate that thank you but you know what they're at the museum modern art and they love these artists work and i don't know i'm not good at math anymore but they can't believe the artwork and what happened with architecture in New York in 2023.

3:00So tell me about the artist life, because I always find it fascinating that many times the artist becomes most famous after they die, or at least the ones I've seen. They do this art many times. It sounds like, and I'm not, I don't have a lot of experience, but they don't really make a lot of money from it. Like you said, and then they die and their life, it seems kind of sad, but then this fame creates and then wealth comes later on. I find that very interesting. Can you explain why? That's the story of not every artist. Okay. I had a beautiful house. I had a tremendous life. I was teaching, but I was also painting about 12 hours a day in the summer.

3:47Okay. And I used to wake up at five o 'clock. and so I want you to be able to relate this I have a good friend who's an NFL player who's a neighbor former NFL player and um you know I'm not going to say my age but I'm 21 anyway he's about 50 something and um I asked him one time recently I said you know what I'm doing this until I'm 128 years old how many NFL players could do that and he had 11 surgeries and so I like your smile. So I think you're getting the point. Every artist is different. And I'm with Baden-Bauer. They're promoting my work. And Fabrizio, Andy, and Sheila have done a remarkable job.

4:37So I want you to read about me, will you please? It's in New York Weekly. And it's in New York Weekly, September 2nd. And it's an article about what I'm doing for the art world. Do you think that a painting can change the way we see life, maybe even heal tragedy? Well, do you know the painting by Guernica? I'll talk a bit, okay, because we're running out of time because we're not doing 15 weeks. But Guernica was about the Spanish destruction of a fascist in a town in Spain at night. The bombers came in. So here's my goal as an artist. And I need help with this. please go to my website. Please buy my work.

5:22I have really good prices. I had a private art dealer. It's charlesedelmanmasterpieces.com. But Guernica changed the world. So here's my story. I knew that in New York when I was 20-something years old. And I want to do a 30-foot painting that's the opposite of Guernica. But that cost a lot of money and I need a huge studio space. So my painting is going to be joy, love, happiness, and all these things that I think the world needs right now. You know what hiring feels like? Like searching for a needle in a haystack. You post a job, get flooded with resumes, but most just don't have the right experience or mindset.

6:02That's why I tell every founder I meet, use ZipRecruiter. ZipRecruiter finds amazing candidates fast, and right now you can try it for free at ziprecruiter.com slash work. Here's why I love it. Their smart tech instantly pinpoints top talent and starts showing me the role. And you don't just sit and wait, you can personally reach out with their invite to apply message and connect with the best right away. If you're building something great, the team you have, the team you hire makes all the difference. So ditch the other hiring sites and let zip recruiter find what you're really looking for the needle in the haystack four out of five employers who post on zip recruiter get a quality candidate within the first day try it free at ziprecruiter.com work one more time ziprecruiter.com work zip recruiter the smartest way to hire why do you think that artists will continue to risk everything when maybe the world doesn't understand them and it reminds you you know when you go to like a museum and many times you're like what was the artist thinking right it almost seems like we don't always understand what the artist is saying but yet the artist is so dedicated to risking everything putting it all out on the table to create something that they want to see in their mind read my book it's all in there seriously 43 pages and i'm not a writer and i'm not bragging but i love that book okay but the story with that is here's well here's how i think When I was three years old, I saw light in my bedroom.

7:43And you know what? I still love painting and drawing rays of light. So let's get profound here a bit. I think that there's things inside of you, Dan, and inside of all your listeners that have stayed with them forever. And one thing besides my artwork, I'm really brilliant at bringing out the creative side of people. And I have a student who will love this on the video. He's in his 70s. He's probably given up golf for the last year and a half, two years since he's known me. And he's given up golf because he loves art. So I can bring out these things, okay? And to follow it up, I'm talking a lot.

8:29Normally, I'm a good listener, okay? But there was a thing. I'll give you something. There's an artist named Robert De Niro Sr. And that's De Niro's father. Okay. De Niro posted in a magazine years ago that he wanted some artist to come explain his father's work. I've been to his father's. I've been to De Niro's restaurant in New York. I've been to the theater upstairs. And I could do that. Bob De Niro, you want to learn about your dad seriously better than maybe anybody could talk. and I could do it. Contact me. I wrote to him. No response. So please talk to me, sir. OK, we worked on a project with Al Kilmer and I noticed he was a very prolific artist.

9:15And it seemed like that was really his outlet. It was his big passion beyond everything. Or maybe the acting was the art, but he painted and he had stuff all over his studio. I find it really interesting. What do people get? Like when you when you create a painting or you create something like what you're doing, what is it? Is it intrinsic, extrinsic? What is it that that you get from doing this? well about i moved to south america mexico belize and i didn't know you back then but if you went to the jungle with me in belize we could have painted for two weeks and after me teach i'm serious now and i can do this with corporations i can do this with anybody but the quietest place in the world, and you know what happens?

10:08You find yourself. I already knew myself. Okay? But with nothing around, and I'm a New York, I used to be a New York City artist, so I know the difference. And so recently, or a while back, there was, what's her name, Spade, and there were Anthony Bourdain, and they committed suicide, right? And had they been with me in Cusco, Peru, they wouldn't have killed themselves. And it's sad, but I'm not joking about that. So what I have a creative genius for in my work is artwork pushing the boundaries. It's Jim for the mind because I'm bored once a year maybe. Okay? And seriously, I have a wonderful girlfriend.

10:55I have a wonderful life. And I had a beautiful house. And you know what? I live. How can you escape? And I escaped. And I think that for a lot of your people that are going to watch this, they need to escape a little bit. And I can do corporate talks. I develop things. I can teach the history of art in 45 minutes. Seriously. Does it make you a great artist? No. But it increases your knowledge about the world. And I'm reading two books on Leonardo now. So you're asking me really good questions. how do you know so much about everything if you could channel leonardo da vinci or or if you could channel any artist that is no longer alive and you could paint with them one time who would it be and why you know what can i you you ask for stories i knew an artist that i met was 83 years old i won't say his name other than it was Marcel.

12:00And he knew Marilyn Monroe. He was a famous artist, but not at the top echelon, but he was a master printmaker for Picasso and Dolly. So I adopted him at 83. He used to come to my studio once a month, look at my work. Here's Marcel. He's sitting there. Okay. And one day I had known him for two years. I said, Marcel, what would Picasso say about my work? And you know what he said? Beret on, trench coat. Kelly. Okay, Marcel, it's three minutes. We're recording now, Marcel. Give me a break. He would love it. So that's my story. I don't have idols and I don't have, and somebody like you or somebody like Meryl Streep who flirted with me, you know, what am I going to do?

12:51I was seeing somebody you know what I'm saying can I show you a couple pictures this one behind me you can see this one I used to paint like this I'm trying to impress you thank you and I did this about a year ago thank you Rembrandt's like a great grandfather great great great grandfather he died in 1669 I'm sorry I didn't need him and I think thank you I'm pretty good you know and the other nice thing about it is he can be modest here's another one and this is you gotta have fun did you hear me Dan you gotta you gotta have fun with your work and this one I was just in New York weekly in um September 2nd so your viewers please go to that I don't know you but anybody anybody out there I could help you but please collect my paintings I'm determined to do this 10 by 30 foot painting and I've been in museum shows but you know what you got to do what you have to do if that sounds too silly.

14:12And I taught at Dartmouth. I was in a gifted program at Yale. And we're going over time. I know you're going to tell me. What would you like to ask? Tell me about Yale. That was a long time ago, another lifetime ago. I moved on in 2016 when I got on a plane and lived in Cozumel. I was in a gifted program. I was a poor kid. Okay. And I worked my ass off because I wasn't a baseball player good enough. Okay. For the St. Louis Cardinals to play center fields. All right. You look like you're a baseball player. Okay. And so just quickly, because we got to wrap things up, I know in about two hours, which is fine.

14:50Okay. And so I expected everybody to be geniuses. And sometimes on the weekends, I was in a special gifted program. There might be two people out of 30, whatever. There are 350 people accepted from Canada and the United States. And you know what, man? I'm like a tank or a train. You jump on the train, and if you're a student of mine, you jump on the train, and I'll take you places that you never dreamed of, and that's how I am as an artist. So Yale Dartmouth was amazing. And how do you teach mostly billionaire kids? You push them with things that they don't know, and you give them projects. So my idea was LeBron James, Taylor Swift were sponsoring a restaurant on Central Park by 59th Street.

15:58And they had to design paintings for two floors across from Central Park. But it was for families. And you would not believe the rock and roll lion musician bands they created. Surrealist eyes. And you're getting ready to ask me something else, please. no i'm fascinated by your stories and uh i would love to read the book so tell me what is the name of the book and i'm guessing you said i can get that on amazon yeah and it's a whole ten dollars so it's three years of worth so that you're paying me about three bucks and i'm not even getting the whole amount but do me a favor it is a steal and i priced my works low i had a price i I'm in about, I don't know how many private collections and people come back and buy my, used to buy my work because I moved.

16:51But some people have 10 to 15 works in their collection. And that's the main thing that I'm doing all this far. So go on my website, charlesedlemanmasterpieces.com. And I also posted it on my website under sports art. so if you like sports you'll see my list of this list

17:17and is there anything else this has been great um i never played baseball by the way i'll be i was pretty horrible at all sports but no um i've always wanted to be an artist one day i'm inspired i'm gonna go i'm gonna go make some art after this and let's see how it looks but i appreciate your time i enjoyed the story i've never talked to anyone who met andy warhol before so that's a first and uh and i think i i've also haven't talked to anyone who's given me so many stories which i prefer i actually enjoy uh listening to stories in your life and your art seems incredible so thank you for all that you do and thanks for joining us today i've done a lot for charity.

18:01And I'll tell you what, within a month, I'm turning several people right now that I have students private, not many, but I'm turning them into artists. Okay. So take a, take some classes with me. You know how to reach me. Okay. And so maybe you do. All right. You can go through my website and um it's genius at work one at yahoo.com but you know what i'm not a tough grader in the beginning amazing that's good i won't fail but thank you charles for joining us today and excited about the art the future of art the future of art and you know what Any corporations, anybody that wants to reach out to me, please do.

18:50And I won't disappoint you, including Bob De Niro, my good friend. Amazing. Thanks, Charles. Thank you. And I'm serious about teaching. OK, I would love to.