To You It May Be Death Defying

I've wanted to do a Neil Finn piece since day one. It took me something like eight years to finally get around to it, but here he is! I've got a hefty list somewhere of similar ideas saved for later. Things I felt too daunted to approach then. Now I know of course that you just have to do it or you'll never do it.

My introduction to Split Enz was an attraction to their unique blend of proggy strangeness and pop accessibility. The poppiness got a huge boost when baby Neil Finn got on board, and the Finn brothers together are like candy for the ears. The band's exciting visual aesthetic, courtesy of spoon-playing hero Noel Crombie, has been permanently ingrained into my brain's palette.

As for Neil Finn, well, what can I say? One of my absolute favorite vocalists ever. There's just something about a soulful belter. See also: Glenn Tilbrook, Cyndi Lauper, etc. But as if the killer voice weren't enough, there's also his songwriting. Devastatingly emotive but not sickly sweet, with an edge and a rawness.

Some of my other favorite bands imploded or fizzled out. Split Enz had the wisdom to call it a day on their terms, which is the best you can ask for. "I Walk Away" is a beautiful song that you can mold to just about any adversity in your own life and have it fit just perfectly. Neil did the tune with Crowded House after the Enz closed out with it. Both versions are brilliant, but the driving, syncopated, hiccuping Split Enz version (with Noel's fingerprints all over the promo video) especially slays me. It's such a lovely way to say so long.

"Reveal whatever you desire.
To you it may death defying.
Your life a slave to ambition.
Tension your permanent condition.
So much you've always wanted.
Too much giving you a sore head.
Finally marching to a different tune."

Requisite-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t

Just a quick study of the World's Nicest Man, Michael Palin. Still my favourite Python after all these years. (Alongside Gilliam, of course.) Am I a heretic if I say his travel shows are on the same level as Python??? Anyway he certainly blows Rick Steves out of the water. Yep, I said it.

Shut It!

Some more Top of the Pops studies. A watercolor variation on the old liner technique. My favorite way to work, currently.

Dance Stance

Are "Friends" Electric?

I Just Can't Be Happy Today

My winter nights are so much cold-uhhhh.

After the frustration of my last piece, I decided to back up and do some studies.

I get jaded. All of my favorite visual artists stick with more or less the same aesthetic throughout their entire careers. And their work is always fresh and amazing. How do they do it? I leaned a bit too heavily on my liner marker/ colored pencil technique for a couple years and had to step away from it for a solid year. This isn't the right paper for it, but here is its apprehensive return. So, how the heck DO you keep it fresh?! As Martin Fry would croon beneath his immaculate flop of golden hair, "I don't know the answer to that question! If I knew I would tell you..." Hmm.

Shake the Disease

Sound of the Crowd

Thrown Away

Dammit!

Whenever you watch Bob Ross paint, you always trust that by the end of the show he'll have given you a twinkling treasure. Somewhere in the first half you might think, "Hmm, that looks a little off." But a couple strokes later, off goes the contact paper and-- WHAMMO-- it's a masterpiece. As an artist, I don't always have that same level of trust in myself yet. If I plan-- if I gather reference and do studies and thumbnails-- I do. But if I skimp on any of those steps, there's always the risk that by the time I've decided to call it a day and stamp my name on the piece, I'm only wrapping it up to stop myself from fudging it further. So at this stage I've learned very clearly that there is a distinction between a truly spontaneous piece and a fully-rendered planned piece, and that anything in between isn't really controllable. It's discouraging to trip up in that way, especially when you invest a lot (but apparently not quite enough) of yourself in something. I allow for a healthy level of open-endedness. I don't ever cling to a desire for my work to turn out a certain way. I don't know how it will turn out. I don't mind that.

With the creative work of others, I like to get a glimpse at unpolished stuff like demos, sketches, and rough drafts. All those items that are not meant to be shared are a really great thing to share. If I may sound like an exasperating turd for a second: I don't feel there are mistakes in art. Only trial runs and learning experiences. Frustrating, infuriating, rip-your-eyeballs-out-of-their-sockets learning experiences. Sometimes I fail. And I get panicky when I realize I've used up a whole day, failing. Doing what amounts to nothing. But it's not nothing, is it? It all leads to improvement, which is definitely something. Ho-hum.

Me, I go from one extreme to another!

Martin Fry gives me major hair envy. 

I have no good explanation for not yet having experienced an ABC album in full. I'm not as cool as I think I am, I guess.

"And all my friends just might ask me, 

They say, 'Martin, maybe one day you'll find true love.'

And I say, 'Maybe there must be a solution to

The one thing, the one thing we can't find.'"

Thanks, People's Poet!

The Comic Strip Presents... was my introduction to the Comic Strip comedy troupe, one of my favorites. Young Ones came later. I admit I didn't fully get it at first. They didn't rely on campiness like Python. They committed to their bits with total seriousness. And without an audience to reassure me that I was laughing at the right spots in those films, it felt totally foreign. That's what stood out to me. They were weird. And I liked it.

And Young Ones. Butt jokes and slapstick violence aren't for everyone. But how about surrealism and puppets? And musical performances? And just total, rapid-fire, alternative silliness? Rik Mayall is a favorite for a lot of people. His physicality is unmistakable, and a bright spot in everything he's ever been in. His turns as Flashheart in Blackadder are like comedy candy. And I don't care what anybody says about Drop Dead Fred; it is pure gold. You don't ever expect that such a vivid personality could ever leave this earthly realm.

"And then one particularly sensitive and articulate teenager will say, 'Other kids, do you understand nothing? How can Rick be dead when we still have his poems?'"