Fresh commission

A collector approached me a couple of weeks ago to do a portrait of her girlfriend as a birthday gift. I explained that portraiture was not my strong suit and suggested that perhaps I could do a painting of her surrounded by the objects she holds dear. The concept was approved but as soon as I began, it morphed into a combination of short story and little watercolors. I am so proud of how it turned out. Here it is, click on it to see it bigger. (A statue of Guan Yin was one of her prized possessions.)

I don't like Mondays

I heard this song the other day in the car on a mix tape my buddy Pete made for me. I thought, "oh, that's a nice song, catchy, nice hook, etc." and so I played it the next time I was in the car and whaddaya know, the missus started singing along. "You know this song?!" I asked, no doubt with the surprised attitude of the one in the relationship who thinks they're much more musically hip than the other. "Yeah," she patiently explained, "it was huge. A huge hit." Here's the song. (assuming it hasn't been removed again for some reason)

Now here's the crazy part. The missus told me that the song was about a young girl who killed a bunch of people and said she did it 'cause she didn't like Mondays. No freakin' way! NO WAY! Yes. It turns out that it's true. (Here's the snopes.com story.) Brenda Spencer was 16. On Monday morning, Jan 29, 1979, she started shooting at students at the elementary school across the street from her house. (Here are more facts from Songfacts.com about the song) She killed 2 people and wounded more. A reporter got her on the phone and asked her why she did it. She said: "I just did it for the fun of it. I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day." Incredible. Just incredible.

All of a sudden, what had been a typical happy superficial pop song had a terribly, tragically macabre interior. All of a sudden a piece of popular art that solely existed in the sheltered ivory tower world of small consequences (sadly, that's where art lives for me) had horrible roots in the harsh and real world of profound consequences. I love it.

Is it good? Bad? Disrespectful of those whose friends and relatives were killed or injured? Does the song glorify the murder? Honor the memory of those who died? Help us as a society to know more about the horrors that are all around us? Is that really helpful?

Here's one thing for sure: here's a piece of art that raised all kinds of interesting questions. And that's awesome. Here's a piece of art that used its superficial appeal (nice melody, catch hook, etc.) to draw people in to deeper questions. Bravo.

Bravo.