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Honoring the Artist: Peter Max Marion Wolberg Weiss
It's been over a year since Peter Max has been on the cover of Dan's Papers, yet everyone who sees the current image will recognize it immediately as belonging to Max. (Who could ever forget his iconic imagery of the 1960s, for example, or more recently, various versions of The Statue of Liberty?)
This familiarity and comfort level also hold true when speaking with Max himself. Even though it's been several months since this critic and the artist have spoken, we continued a substantial conversation as if it were yesterday when we last communicated.
Max is one of those unique people who connects with everyone and everything. No guile. No arrogance. No egomania. He is truly a man who cares about life outside himself: questing for knowledge, absorbing what he learns and taking care of friends in need.
Such pursuits take energy, commitment and an insatiable appetite, of course, but they also take peace and quiet at times. Max will have none of that, remarking that he has a full-time DJ playing music in his office-studio, a place where he can't wait to get to each day.
In a nutshell, Max seems the kind of person who constantly "fuels up" on living, passing that fuel to everyone he meets. During a recent conversation, he further expands on the stimuli, which feed his passions.
Q: I really shouldn't have suggested that you don't believe in peace and quiet. They are actually very important to you.
A: It is most important to be calm and relaxed if you want to be creative. It doesn't just apply to the arts; business ideas need calmness, too. If you are anxious, ideas can't come through.
Q: You are so connected to the universe and our galaxy (many of your images reflect this) but it's because of what they can teach you. The knowledge you have becomes your worldview, literally. Can you give me an example of how this knowledge works for you?
A: How many suns are there in our galaxy?
Q: I'll take a guess. One million.
A: Close. There are 350 billion suns in the galaxy. There are also 400 billion galaxies.
Q: Where did you get this from?
A: Neil Tyson from the Planetarium.
Q: So how does this affect your work or sense of life?
A: I'm in awe and shock. I'm beside myself. No words or emotions can describe it. The idea leaves you breathless. To the universe, we're smaller than an atom. There are 100 trillion cells in each person.
Q: I'm in awe and shock. So, what do you do with that knowledge?
A: The smallest and the biggest. I live in the middle.
Q: I have to know, how did you first sense the importance of the universe?
A: I grew up in China; my father owned a moderate-size department store there. I went to Tibet and ended up staying for six and a half months. I became friends with an old man there who had a telescope. He welcomed me into his world. Imagine, I was an eight-year-old kid, and he was an 80-year-old man; I am so grateful to that man. I combined my love of astronomy with art in the late 1960s.
Q: I know you have other interests, too, that you're committed to.
A: I am a vegan and have been for 35 years. I also have seven cats and am an animal rights advocate. So is my wife.
Q: You also love pop culture.
A: Yes. I like Spielberg and George Lucas, Oprah, CBS' "The Early Show."
Q: How about right-winger Glenn Beck?
A: I don't judge people's beliefs. I care about the humanity of the planet.
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