occupation: artist

There were a couple of poignant moments when leaving Zarzan’s apartment in an old age home in suburban Norwalk, CT. Firstly, I couldn’t help but notice the irony of where he lives juxtaposed to the experience of being with such a distinctly exhuberant, energetic and timeless spirit and odds are the coolest person you will ever meet. Zarzan has no age and doesn’t give into labels of any kind and thus, he seems oblivious to society’s classification of his living quarters or anything else that he does. I walked across the street into a cafe and ran into a design student, sketching at a table, who noticed me right away, as I felt oddly obvious in the uniform enviornment. When I mentioned that I was filming someone for my site on personal style, he knew exactly who my subject was. His face lit up when talking about how much he looked up to Zarzan for his extraordinary individuality and recalled many stories of his entrances into the various events around town. He said that everyone was either drawn magnetically to Zarzan and his complete disdain for the homogeneity of our culture, in thought and appearance, or they ran the other way. He is the definition of a free spirit and for many, with his completely out of the box thinking and dressing, it can be too challenging to their very circumscribed lives. Zarzan’s bold and fantastical way of dressing and traveling, he drives around in a zebra painted van, makes him both a celebrity and a pariah in the suburbs. Housewives and kids wave at him and smile, loving how unique he is and then often, he is thrown out of bars and restaurants for appearing too extremely different. The total irony is, that he is wearing the clothes from the local Goodwill, as he says, they are the toss outs of these very same people. Like everything, Zarzan is able to see the beauty and value of the unusual and exotic pieces that everyone else sees as too deviant. I was struck by how worldy Zarzan was, so wide open, knowledgable and accepting, despite the fact that he has not traveled the planet, he seems like a product of the universe. He attributes much of this to his dreams, which he calls astro-projections, he says that they are so vivid and magnificent beyond any feat or woman that exists on earth. Zarzan is one of the happiest people I have ever met and living proof that imagination is more important than knowledge He believes that from imagination comes creation, and from creation comes joy, “God would have had to imagine before he could create.”