I recently went to a Portrait Painting Marathon and Salon de Guerre, hosted by Dr. Barnaby Ruhe, at the Westbeth Artists Housing (original headquarters of Bell Telephone Laboratories) in the West Village. Essentially, it’s a studio where a bunch of artists set-up easels and pour wine and socialize about the art world while musicians play and aficionados pose, drink, and discuss trends and installations. It was very Basquiat, but on the other side of the island and nobody overdosed on heroin. My favorite quote of the evening came from a woman named Maggie, who said: “I moved to Manhattan, expecting it to be like this every night. It took 20 years, but now I’ve found it.”

Other artists include Eileen Coyne, and Emmanuelle Linard. Above is a painting of me by Michael Kronenberg.