Gina's World

Interesting day Friday.

First thing in the morning I had an interview with Victoria Browning Wyeth, grand-daughter of painter Andrew Wyeth, at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Wyeth's watercolors and drawings, including several early scribbles of his iconic painting, Christina's World, are on exhibit through May 6.

The exhibit is staggering, and you really must go see it. To see the early studies of what would become one of the best known paintings of the 20th Century is incredibly rare and magical, like seing a shooting star or reading a really great book. Moreover, the pieces in the exhibit haven't been seen in the United States in ten years. So it's rare in-and-of itself, and also rare is the opportunity to see them.

When I walked in to the Art Museum the security guard told me he thought I was Victoria Browning Wyeth.

"You favor her," he said. "Only your hair is longer."

You know how when someone tells you you look like someone else you're kind of offended because you look at them and think, "Umm... Not even close." Well, in this case, he was right, because when I saw Victoria, I could see why he would say that. It was peculiar to look at her and see myself in her features. It must be what twins feel like.

Then he asked me if I worked for CiN, then if CiN was owned by The Enquirer. I told him yes and yes.

"I can't read you then," he said.

When I asked him why not, he said because the Enquirer is racist and that all of the reporting is biased. He went on to tell me that his opinion dates back to 1978 when the Enquirer covered the shooting deaths of two people.

So I asked him if he reads any other newspapers instead. He told me he reads USAToday.

"But you realize that the Enquirer, CiN and USAToday are all owned by the same company, right?" I asked him.

He said yes but that it didn't matter. He only hated the Enquirer and CiN by proxy. Then he admitted that he does look at CiN for the "party photos" which, according to our Web traffic, is what everybody looks at.
 
About that time the PR woman for the CAM came up, overheard this conversation and was surely mortified, because when I was leaving the security guard stopped me and was very apologetic, saying he hoped I wasn't upset with him or the art museum.

I felt bad for him. I assured him that neither was the case, that I am more than used to handling criticism about the paper. Though usually people complain to me that their paper didn't get delivered.  

After that was when I met the lively, 28-year-old Victoria Browning Wyeth, who overwhelmed me by how personable and lighthearted she was. (She practically sat down on top of me as we chatted.) She told me stories about her "grandpa Andy," including that he loves black turtlenecks and is absolutely adorable at nearly 90-years-old.

I asked her if he ever had any idea that Christina's World would become so famous. She said she doubted it.

"Everyone in the family hated it," she said, touching my arm for emphasis. "They thought it was terrible!"

She was wildly entertaining. As I was leaving I saw her in the hallway chatting with someone. As I walked by she yelled, "Wear something sexy tonight!" (She was talking about the Wyeth reception later that evening.)

"Girl, you know how I roll," I said.

After the opening reception was over, as I was waiting for The Tall Drink of Water to come pick me up to spare me from having to walk back to the car in the cold, I moseyed over to where the food and drinks were earlier, only to find that they'd been taken down.

"Have they done away with the refreshments," a well-dressed man in probably his sixties asked me.

"I'm afraid so," I told him. Then I went to look at the collection while I waited.

A minute or so later he reappeared beside me, introduced himself and shook my hand.

"I occasionally come here on Wednesdays, for One World Wednesday," he said.

"Yeah, I come here for One World Wednesday sometimes, too."

"And afterwards we sometimes go to Andy's. What street is that on?"

"Nassau," I said.

"Well, we could go there for something to eat."

His invitation surprised me. It was so fluid and so casual that it caught me off guard.

I told him I'd love to but that I was waiting for my boyfriend to pick me up.

"Ahh, he went to get the car. Well then, perhaps I'll see you on a Wednesday evening sometime."

And that was that.

Actually, that isn't that. The day had far more strange happenings than just these, but it would take too long to write about all of it.