Channeling

Way back in the mid-80s, I got on the subway with a fellow named Rob, with whom I was sharing painting studios. As we approached a bench seat, Rob picked up a new age magazine that was lying around, and started reading it on the ride. "Hey look at this, the Great Gasparetto is coming to town." "What are you talking about?" "Gasparetto, man, he channels dead painters. We have to go."

So, we gathered up a bunch of friends and off we went to the Great Hall on Queen St. W., here in Toronto, to see this character channel painters. The place was packed with new-agers + us, a bunch of artists from the neighbourhood. He had a great gaff. He would go into a trance and channel two different artists at once, one with each hand, and in a matter of minutes he would crank out a Van Gogh or a Monet or a Rembrandt. He only channelled artists whose names were very very well known. Then someone in the crowd would scream out, "My God, it's a Monet". Naturally, he auctioned off his creations at the end of the show...er, um, I mean the channeling session.

I was telling someone about this recently and I decided to check YouTube just to see if he was still doing his schtick and if he was on-line. He sure is!




Wonderful stuff. I wonder if there's still a good buck in the channeling business? I seem to recall him saying that he had a brother who channeled dead musicians, like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. Now THAT would be fun. I think if I became a channeler, I would be doomed to channel obscure "painters' painters" that nobody remembered. People would just think I was nuts.