Wayne White

There is a lot of shitty “art” in the world. I mean stuff that is mass produced for people’s living room. My parents had one. It was called “Singing Stream”. It was a Franz Johnson. I hated the painting. Especially after I saw a similar one at a friend’s house. It was only slightly different. As if they had moved the centre of the picture over about 6 inches. This is what it looks like except they changed the name to Smiling Stream. Smiling is a great improvement, don’t you think?

Now Franz Johnson was somehow related to the Group of Seven. Or maybe he was one of seven. Or seven of one. I get that mixed up. (Star Trek joke.) This painting sold recently. I guess my folks had a print. Even now that I have discovered its lineage, I still hate it. Still think its garbage.

Wayne White has found a way to save these kinds of painting. And I think he’s done a masterful job. He adds comments. Not underneath. In the damn painting. And they’re large. So large you can hardly see the painting. Which was the intention in the first place.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Lovers in a dangerous time

I hate the title. But sometimes you’ve got to embrace the things you despise. Utterly. Actually I don’t hate it. Just the song written by Bruce Coborn. Pretentious. Especially because a friend of mine likes him. And we were born to be contrary. This is a piece I worked on tonight. A kind of slide show which is the seed of an idea I have for a video piece.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Guiseppi Savini

Its happened to me several times. I was on the coast of Dover. It was 1970. And I imagined that I could see the Spanish Armada. Of course I couldn’t really see it. For one thing it was dark. And I was a little inebriated. But I imagined I could see it. The next time was when I was in Venice. I was standing on a spot that I was sure I’d been before. That evening I looked up a book on Italian art and found a painting that could only have been created at that spot hundreds of years previous. Thats why I like these ‘then and now’ photos of Savini. (Who I could find nothing about.)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.