Distressed: Trotter Quits Tacoma

Tacoma-hating, fame-loving artist Trotter (above) and his grandma's famous Russian uncle Serge Voronoff (below), who made men part monkey. Photograph courtesy of Aaron Voronoff Trotter.

Aaron Voronoff Trotter has had it with Tacoma. According to the thirty-one-year-old artist, his March 11 show at Tacoma Wine Merchants was his last show here, period. Why? What are we, chopped liver? “Yes, Tacoma is chopped liver,” Trotter tells City Arts, “and smells worse. I will never stop making art, but sure, I will stop sharing with an unresponsive public.”

But, um ... didn’t Trotter already have a farewell show in Portland in 2006? “Yes, I had a last double goodbye show,” he says, “sold, gave away and donated almost all my art and went to Canada, Alaska and the East Coast, and back for two years.”

And that wasn’t Trotter’s last last show, either. “Almost a year ago I had another last show on Portland’s Last Thursday, before going to Alaska for the summer. Funny how everyone shows up when I say I’m leaving. What can I say? I’m a dramatic fool, an attention-hungry starving artist who almost starved to death; burn me if you want, sacrifice me to the art gods. Maybe people will appreciate my talent in Paris.”

One more thing. In Portland, Trotter was billed as Aaron H. H. Trotter. So who is he really, H. H. or Voronoff? “I have taken the name Voronoff in honor of Dr. Serge and my grandmother Natasha Voronoff.” For those unfamiliar, Natasha’s uncle Serge Voronoff got rich and famous in Russia grafting monkey testes onto men and inspired the Bulgakov novel Heart of a Dog. “The H. H. stands for Hal Huntington, my legal middle names.”