G.K. Chesterton
It was back in 1981 - I was in my second year of art school. I'd been seeing these re-interpreted and much improved billboards around and enjoying their wit and bravado. It was well before the internet days, but somehow through the grapevine found out that B.U.G.A.U.P encouraged anyone with the same anti-smoking/alcohol/big business ethics to do some tagging of their own. It was the early days of culture jamming. There were no meetings or planning - it was a loose affiliation - just individual hit and runs - all you needed to do was add the b.u.g.a.u.p tag in caps at the bottom.
I went out and bought a dozen spray paints and with my brother, Mook, and my girlfriend at the time, Bianca, we set to work doing our piece in rectifying the evil messages around town. We did a Benson & Hedges one near the airport and a Sterling cigarettes one down at Woolloomooloo. It was exciting and fun. Our third intended target was a big one - corner of Forbes and Bourke streets in East Sydney. We had a plan - Bianca would stand as look out while Mook and I gave the massive ad the once over. The paints were out and Mook and I were just about to begin when Bianca screamed out my name. I ran over to find her standing uncomfortably in the shadow of two beefy men in suits. Turns out they were undercover vice squad and they thought Bianca was a sex worker (she was wearing hot pants and did look the part). They were pretty tough and inimidating fellas and after half an hour of interrogation and berating, confiscated our spray paints and managed to scare us off any further activities. We were lucky they didn't search the car because those were pot smoking days. So, our young b.u.g.a.u.p careers got buggered up. Everyday the artist goes to the well of creativity, lowers the bucket, brings up some fresh and nourishing juices from the source and trudges back to his humble abode to do his day's new work.
WAYNE WHITE - artist with sense of humour and bucket loads of talent - plays with people's minds and the banjo. FREE ADVICE:
When being attacked by a giant lizard on your way to an awards ceremony, one should try to remain calm, keep your dignity, avoid expletives like, "Fuck you, crazy bitch-ass lizard!", and if not eaten alive, try to carry on as though nothing has happened. (Also, DO NOT eat sushi within 24hrs of the encounter. DO NOT visit a library alone. DO NOT purchase any new bedding items, pillow covers or the like.) “…Describe your sorrows and desires, the thoughts that pass through your mind and your belief in some kind of beauty – describe all these with heartfelt, silent, humble sincerity and, when you express yourself, use the Things around you, the images from your dreams, and the objects that you remember. If your everyday life seems poor, don’t blame it; blame yourself; admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth its riches; because for the creator there is not poverty and no poor, indifferent place. And even if you found yourself in some prison, whose walls let in none of the world’s sounds – wouldn’t you still have your childhood, that jewel beyond all price, that treasure house of memories? Turn your attentions to it. Try to raise up the sunken feelings of this enormous past; your personality will grow stronger, your solitude will expand and become a place where you can live in the twilight, where the noise of other people passes by, far in the distance. — And if out of this turning-within, out of this immersion in your own world, poems come, then you will not think of asking anyone whether they are good or not. Nor will you try to interest magazines in these works: for you will see them as your dear natural possession, a piece of your life, a voice from it. A work of art is good if it has arisen out of necessity. That is the only way one can judge it.”
Rainer Maria Rilke There are a lot of good things about being an artist.
However... It can sometimes be quite challenging. One of the most difficult things is that being an artist is not usually a very lucrative thing. In this society, money rules. And artists do not have a lot of money. Everybody is careful with there money. Buying art is a non-essential. A luxury. It's understandable. On the economic pyramid artists are near the bottom. Stuggling. Struggling with their art and struggling with their lives. Sometimes, struggling just to survive. Does it build character? Hmmm. There's only so much character you need. What you do need to do is pay the rent, buy food, then on top of all that you have to buy supplies. Then do the art. If you're lucky you may sell a piece here or there. Not much going around. It's tough. Still, we keep producing new images. We are compelled. Life goes on. Today, I have about $5 in my wallet. That is it. Technically, I am destitute. Below the poverty line. But spiritually, I am soaring. Free. Easy. One day at a time. Tomorrow a new creation. 'I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, Angel-headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connectionto the starry dynamo in the machinery of night...'
ALLEN GINSBERG "The mind loves the unknown. It loves images whose meaning is unknown, since the meaning of the mind itself is unknown.”
René Magritte (click on the mirror to learn more about Monsieur Magritte) One of the great things about doing art is that it helps you to appreciate SEEING and LOOKING at things. After a session of concentration - creating a new piece in a cafe or wherever, I walk outside and look up and around and am bombarded by amazing images - in 3D!
Like I'll be using a picture of the sky that I took a few days ago in this image and then I'll look up at the sky in reality and just get blown away by the scale, colours, cloud shapes, light... Life really does present us with SO MUCH visual exquisitness. It's around us all the time. You just got to learn to appreciate it. Breathtaking. And breath giving. Ahhh.... It's good to try things. Like getting past these doormen... er, aspiring comedians.
Started a comedy duo with me mate, Stevo, from Byron Bay when we were both back in Sydney 4 or 5 years ago. We worked together on the successful comedy radio show 'The Wonderful Thing' on Bay FM for a few years before that. I had met Austentayshus - of 'Australiana' fame - one day in the streets around that time and told him I thought he and I could work on a film script together. He was open to the idea and we got along well - so we had a few meetings and chatted, wrote down some ideas. It didn't really pan out - but when he heard of the Boing Boyz he suggested we join him on his new tour. It was a great break and an exciting moment. Actually getting up there on stage in pubs out west - Blacktown, Redfern, etc - was a harsh realization - despite our spending plenty of time writing and practicing. Comedy is hard!! The two front men of Dongers Nightclub decided to retire after just one season. Learnt heaps, didn't get into any real fights, got to witness a maniac/genius in action (Austentayshus) and moved on. Boing, boing... |
ART GETS ME HIGHAuthor & ArtistLewie JPD Archives
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