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Turning point: inside the mind of a 30-something female modern dancer.

Article Excerpt
A few months ago, at a time when I was particularly exhausted from the recurring insolvency of my freelance dancer lifestyle, I thought I had been granted a little monetary relief through an act of divine intervention. I was standing on the subway platform waiting for the downtown A train and absent-mindedly flipping through a local newspaper. Just a moment before, I had been holding the unopened paper over the trash can, but something told me to read it on the ride home. Amidst a flutter of newsprint, a familiar image caught my eye. Alongside a story about Bedell Winery of Long Island's 2001 reserve merlot, (which was having its celebratory release that weekend), was a picture of the bottle of wine. I couldn't believe my eyes. I was on the label.

It was a watercolor painting after a photograph of me that had been taken by Howard Schatz almost 10 years ago. The artist behind the impressionistic rendition was Eric Fischl, a highly esteemed painter in the contemporary art world. Despite the diluted detail of the figure, I recognized myself immediately. This limited edition was selling for $200 a bottle.

I hopped on the train and rode home with a windstorm of thoughts in my head. Does Howard Schatz know about this? Did he sell Fischl the photograph? What's my cut? Maybe I get a percentage of each bottle sold? I was on the label of a $200 bottle of wine! Surely it was not a coincidence that I had reconsidered throwing out the paper. There was money in this for me and a guardian angel was making sure I knew about it. I got home and planned out my phone calls: Howard Schatz, Bedell Cellars, Eric Fischl, and maybe even my cousin, the lawyer.

I called Schatz first. He said he knew about the label and told me that because it was a painting of his photograph and not the photograph itself, by law, it was considered an inspiration. There was no purchase of the photo, no copyright infringement, no money exchanged. At most, I could get a complimentary bottle of wine, but inspiration came free, he said.

I didn't make any more calls.

As the smoke cleared from my explosive financial fantasy, I felt embarrassed. Eric Fischl was an artist whose work I liked very much. Shouldn't I simply be honored to be an inspiration to him? Instead, my first thought was how much money I could make. But I couldn't help it; I'm a 30-something modern dancer....

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