Thanksgiving Diner Invites - The Artsy-Fartsy Types

Friday morning NPR ran a story where a reviewer of classical music listed the classical composers he would invite to Thanksgiving dinner if he could.  The premise is it could be anyone from history. He chose to go with all dead composers.  A friend and I have had similar conversations in the past.  Sometimes we'd discuss it in the "any body, ever" scenario.  Sometimes we'd limit it to certain categories.  We usually ran a list of ten.  I'm going to play with this for the next few days until Thanksgiving.  For now I'm going to keep myself to a limit of five people. I think I'll do one grand invite in the "any body, ever" category to end this run.

Let's bring in the beret wearing set.  Today we'll dine with artists.  This was another hard category for me.  I wish I was a better artist or creator of artistic work. I've tried fiction writing in the past and I'm honestly not good at it.  Have you ever tried to write dialog? Holy shit!  Whenever I've tried it hurts my ears to hear it. I wouldn't subject others to it.  I would dearly love to hear a conversation between successful artistic people about how they practice their craft.  About how they gain inspiration.

1. George R.R. Martin - Sci/Fi and fantasy novelist.  Hollywood and TV script writer.  Creator of my favorite book series of all time, A Song Of Ice And Fire, which is the basis of HBO's Game Of Thrones.
2. Pablo Picasso - As stated I know little about art.  When I walk through the Chicago Art Museum though Picasso stands out to me.
3. Johan Sebastian Bach - I hear tell he's one of the great all time composers.  I know little about it but enjoy much when I hear it.
4. Ella Fitzgerald - Considered one of the great singers of the past century.
5. Sir Alec Guinness - One of the great actors of our time.

If I were to add a 6th and 7th it would be Johnny Cash and Buddy Guy. I considered a whole bunch of other musicians I like listening to as well.  Various actors came to mind.

You know, I really should have a photographer on the list.  I'm not going to change it now but Ansel Adams or Vivian Maier.