When I was conducting the academic inquiry for a presentation at The Seattle Art Museum ( www.facebook.com/events/104286156289406 ) I was asked when I would like to present. After some cross-indexing of significant dates and available windows of opportunity, I concluded the most auspicious coincidence would fall on July 9. Two anniversaries appeared in the window; my presentation was to involve the current special exhibits at the museum; love fear pleasure lust pain glamour death, curated by Marisa Sanchez, and Kurt, curated by Michael Darling. In overlaying the two special exhibits upon a calendar, it was revealed that Kurt Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, celebrated her birthday on July 9th. July 9, 1963 marked the vernissage for Andy Warhol's soup can paintings exhibit at Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, California. Kismet. I continued to prepare for the presentation by exercising an organizing principle of mine which I've previously mentioned, Jen, that of contacting personages of fame, such as when I wrote to Jasper Johns and he wrote his reply on the back of a postcard of a Thomas Eakins painting. For the SAM presentation, I wrote to Courtney Love's agent and asked if she would participate in the presentation, though in all honesty, this was a new level of audacity on my part, asking her to make a public appearance on her birthday. I wasn't given a reply to the request. I would be very interested in a two-person show of Courtney Love and her daughter, Francis Bean, for the simple fact that Kurt Cobain was, in my opinion, a very gifted visual artist in addition to his musical gifts, and the potential for that creative expression in his daughter is an intriguing possibility for an exhibit.

Paul Kuniholm Pauper
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