I watched a documentary last week-end about the prolific artist Keith Haring and was unexpectedly moved by his life’s story. It’s easy to dismiss him as an 80's pop artist who painted in a cartoon-like fashion, but, closer inspection reveals a messenger of light in the form of a skinny bespectacled elf. His innate virtuosity, using simple black lines to create clear and recognizable images, recalls Pollock’s spontaneous process in that he had no set plan. Yet, his paintings exude the energy of love, life, joy, sex and social justice so effectively, that they are contagious. He lived with great openness and social consciousness, reaching the average person by painting outside of the box. He left us at age 31 from AIDS, but gifted us with a plethora of paintings, murals, t-shirts, that carry his message of the universality of all life.
