Top 40 Under 40
Style Weekly
9.27.06
Melissa Scott Sinclair
You have to wonder — does he
do it with mirrors? Slash
Coleman appears to be
everywhere at once. You
variously encounter him in
galleries (he’s a painter), in
high schools (he’s a teacher),
in articles in Massage
magazine (he’s a masseur and
a writer), in his family’s furniture
shop, Tinker’s (he’s a “reluctant
furniture upholsterer”), and
onstage.
Top Fortyunder Forty recipients,
Slash Coleman and Scotessa A.
Hurte, take time out for a photo
opt at the event. (photo: Steven
Sulpakas)
Coleman was recently in San Francisco performing his
acclaimed 30-character one-man show, “The Neon Man and
Me,” about the sudden death of his longtime friend neon artist
Mark Jamison. Soon he’ll be on your TV: PBS is filming “The
Neon Man” for a special. Yet it’s not only Coleman’s ubiquity but
also his generosity that makes him one of Style’s Top 40. He’s
donated most of the proceeds from his show, more than
$10,000 thus far, to Jamison’s son and to city non-profits.
Coleman mentors his fellow artists, giving them free advice on how to build art into
a business. He’ll soon begin teaching workshops for high-school students on how
to grapple with tragic events through performance. And he’s working on his next
show. He also confesses he’d like to learn to play upright bass. And tap-dance. “It’ll
happen in the next life,” he says.September 27, 2006
© Slash Coleman 2008