Mundane Things Like Mailboxes
Although very close friends, Michael Holman and Jean-Michel Basquiat had a very yin/yang relationship. Jean-Michel was a totally spontaneous, free-flowing artist. At the opposite side of the spectrum, Michael was an orderly type, with a methodical way as a means of creativity and a cool business sense.
Jean-Michel was arrogant about certain mundane things in life that just seemed to take up too much time. He avoided things like his mailbox at Crosby Street. He refused to open it up and retrieve any of his mail, including bills and checks. Jean-Michel’s painting assistant told me, when I saw firsthand all the piled-up mail, "Oh, he never opens his mailbox, never reads his mail. He just doesn’t want to be bothered."
Michael, on the other hand, was a very slick and systematic artist and band representative, and responsible for booking Gray’s musical engagements. In all of the years I have known Michael Holman, he has been in a constant state of making art, music, films, and screenplays. Holman has collaborated on the Island Records Basquiat soundtrack and in the writing of the screenplay for the Miramax film, Basquiat, for director and artist Julian Schnabel.
