New York — You don't have to be a kid to love Chuck Close's paintings. It's grown-ups who hang his mural-size portraits in museums and galleries around the world.
But what youngster could resist? Close's jiggy globule shapes are arranged in rows and rows which, as you back off from the canvas, meld like magic into someone's colossal, photorealistic face!
Big Bird from PBS' "Sesame Street" looks over the shoulder of artist Chuck Close in Close's New York studio. Close appears in three episodes of the popular children's show this month.
Abstract and realistic, all in the same painting! How does Close do it? "Sesame Street," in the avian person of Big Bird, is visiting Close to find out.
In one "Ses-ame" interlude, Big Bird asks Close to explain what sort of art he makes.
"I like to make big colorful paintings with lots of funny shapes in them," he replies.
"Wowww!" says Big Bird. "May we see one now?"
They do, as does the sure-to-be-delighted audience.
The one-minute vignette, aired earlier this month, is among three Close encounters of the "Sesame Street" kind. Another aired March 14 and the final one airs Friday.
Like Close's painting style, these small features are part of a bigger picture on view throughout "Sesame's" 32nd season.
It's aimed at helping youngsters understand the creative process, with music and visual art as focal points. And it extends beyond the TV show to the "Sesame" Web site and to educational materials prepared for parents and teachers.
"We're doing it in two phases," says co-executive producer Arlene Sherman. "First, we want to cultivate in children an appreciation of art. The other part is to encourage creativity in them: Everyone is an artist, and art is more about the process than the finished product."
During 2001, Muppets Elmo, Baby Bear and Telly will put on a play, Rosita will draw the residents of Sesame Street, and Elmo will sit in as drummer in Oscar's All-Grouch Band. Special guests include singer Diana Krall, percussionist Evelyn Glennie, blues legend B.B. King, actors Whoopi Goldberg and Robert De Niro, and photographer William Wegman, as well as Close.
Close, with a bald head and gray goatee, is in a wheelchair. A decade ago, he was paralyzed by a stroke and painstakingly learned to paint all over again.
Himself a star in the art world, the 60-year-old Close has hobnobbed with plenty of celebrities, and is friends with more than a few, but this is his first brush with Big Bird.
"I thought about Chuck Close for a couple of reasons," says Sherman later by phone.
"He's great for young children, who have no problem looking at the abstractions his work seems to be up close: Children have a freedom and creativity that adult spectators often lose.
"He's a wonderful role model for us, too," she adds. "He has overcome a real disability, which offers a powerful message to children that they can rise above theirs.
"He's also a lot of fun."
In Friday's segment, Chuck and Big Bird will discuss painting techniques, including how colors are blended.
"When children watch this, they can imagine what a life in art might be like," Close says.
But more to the point for kids meeting him and other artists on "Sesame Street," art makes life more interesting and fun for doers and beholders alike.
"Societies need artists," Close says. "But the other half of the equation is, we artists need people who like art."
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