ANTHONY CRISAFULLI

ART APPRECIATION

Beware of Blind Artists

The Work of Chad Farris (excerpt)

What Makes Us Happy?

- Anthony Crisafulli

Crisafulli: In a conversation we had prior to this session you mentioned Joseph Campbell and #The Power of Myth.$ You also discussed your interest in tattoo culture. Can you tell me how these powerful forces %nd themselves in your work? Chad: They are both about Rights of Passage and Ritualization. The modern American social landscape has lost it!s sense of heritage that both the right of passage and ritualization supports. This is not to say that my father did not encourage me to partake in the same activities that he himself enjoyed, such as hunting, or that my parents did not instill in me the importance of a work ethic. Rather, what I am getting at is that our personal traditions that demarcate major changes in our lives have faded into secular society. I guess they still exist in a religious context with such things as marriage, baptism and the sort, but I have the feeling that there was once a golden age when these things were more common outside of the religious context. ...continued A Boy Without, Oil on Canvas, 2005

Malcolm Gladwell on Spaghetti Sauce

Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell gets inside the food industry!s pursuit of the perfect spaghetti sauce "" and makes a larger argument about the nature of choice and happiness. Can this also be applied to Art?

http://www.ted.com/talks/ lang/eng/ malcolm_gladwell_on_spaghe tti_sauce.html

DAN GILBERT ASKS, WHY ARE WE HAPPY? Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, challenges the idea that we!ll be miserable if we don!t get what we want. Our #psychological immune system$ lets us feel truly happy even when things don!t go as planned. http://www.ted.com/talks/ lang/eng/ dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_ we_happy.html

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Chad: Jack Kerouac!s #On the Road,$ made a big impression on me. What I took away from it was that a couple of times throughout your life you ought to have some big adventures that will reshape how you see the world and how it in turn sees you. No matter how many books you read or movies you see they don!t add up to one one hundredth of the value you derive from going to it, through it and returning home as a new person. Crisafulli: Are the tattoos part of this? Chad: For the past 17 years I have been getting tattooed. Each tattoo means something or stands for something. They mark me like mile markers. Each demarcating an event, person or thought that I consider a turning point in my life. So in some sense they signify a right of passage in a fairly ritualistic way. Crisafulli: You often incorporate tattoo referencse and methodologies in your painting. Do they function that way in your work as well? The Revolution Is Coming, oil on canvas, 2008 Chad: It is more complicated than just a simple yes, so sit down and I will try to lay it out with some clarity. When I set out to do a body of work I will stretch several canvases and let them hang around my studio Chad: I!m going to put it all on the line here. Not for a while. After a period of time one or another because I want to but I don!t know how to explain it canvas will ask me to pay it some attention. Now any way else. First, we need to clarify one thing: my every canvas is di&erent, just like every person that paintings are not me. If you want to think of them as comes into a tattoo shop is di&erent. The only thing skin then think of me as the tattoo artist. A person that they all have in common is that they are comes to the an ink shop with something in mind. vulnerable. Some canvases are big dreamers, some are Something they saw before or an idea they had. The smart while others are immature. person doing the inking may have a few ideas of his own and has mastered his aesthetic but the he does not have any real knowledge of what a person wants Now because the only reference my blank canvases have are those that they either observed or learned or what is going on inside of their head until they or stolen from my studio, that is how they see consult each other. You can tell something about a person from the tattoos that are already on them but themselves and the world around them. I collect everything, old newspaper clippings, skateboards, people change. cartoons, southern memorabilia, books, photos, movies and of course art. So all of this in'uences "
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them. I suspect that if I collected butter'ies, some piece would be in'uenced by them too. But the heck with butter'ies. Paintings also reject certain things that they see. Sometimes they are down right biased and ill"rational and no matter how I try to educate some of them they think they know better. I %nd that over the years the paintings from my studio have changed. Maybe they are watching too much TV or listening to the wrong kind of music. I mean they were always vulnerable, but they used to be more spiritual. Now when I talk to the younger generation they seem like they are ruled by superstition rather than the faith. This may account for their obsession with ritual and rights of passage. They don!t look up to my heros and they are really missing out. I mean they can!t even believe in Popeyes! spinach. Instead, all they want to do is to poke our trusted sailor and demoralize his spirit. It!s their lives. I am only an observer. The other day I caught several un%nished paintings watching one of those 2012 shows on the History Channel and I though to myself, #No wonder why you all have been acting so strange. You have been living on a diet of Red Bull, and Medieval apocalyptic end of time %ction.$ When I confronted one about his attitude, she said, #You just don!t understand. I want to be loyal to

your old heros but what!s the point if the whole world is going to be destroyed by asteroids, or planetary alignment, or the return of the antichrist and the destruction of the Twin Towers and the falling apart of the stock market is part of this whole thing. We are all vulnerable nowadays and it looks hopeless. And it!s someone else!s fault.$ For the next day I felt strange and unclear when we looked at each other. I wanted to tell her that it is not how you die that matters, but how you live and that my heros taught me that. To get o& your ass, stop being a trauma junkie, being vulnerable is part of the human condition. How about turning o& the funny box and make something better of yourself than you presently are. No one is asking you to be perfect of give up your fetishes but we do expect that you make a contribution. Don!t become paralyzed by current events or by the fact that American is going through a tough patch. It will all be o.k . and do you know why? Because, we stand Salvation, Oil on Canvas, 2008 for something. Crisafulli: What do we stand for? Chad: Humanity!

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ANTHONY CRISAFULLI

ART APPRECIATION

INTERVIEW WITH A PAINTING

Dear Reader, The following chapter is a departure from what you might expect. I asked Chad Farris if I could talk directly to some of his paintings in order to get a better perspective on their character and personality. A. Crisafulli Crisafulli: Could you sit with me while I talk to them and translate for them? Chad: I think they would be %ne with that. Crisafulli: Thanks for taking the time to talk to me. B"Mine: Whatever douche bag. Crisafulli: You don!t have to be so aggressive. I!m here to get to know you. B"Mine: Yeah, I!ve hear that before. Every time someone says that they are here to get to know me, I end up in debt, with 20 dollars for food, living on some friend!s couch. Chad: Well who!s fault is that? B"Mine: Yours, you Putz! Chad: Hey man, I don!t deserve that. I took care of you even before you had a voice. Your not sucking me, fucking me or paying my bills. B"Mine: And people wonder why I!m so fucked up. If your creator brought you into the world with that kind of attitude, what kind of an opinion of yourself would you have? Chad: Crisafulli, you have to excuse B"Mine, he had a tough childhood. Crisafulli: B"Mine, would you say you had a tough childhood? B!Mine, Oil on Canvas, 2005

Conversation with B-Mine

Chad: Sure, but there is a small problem, you don!t really speak the same language and that might make them a little self"conscious.

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B"Mine: Every"time Chad would screw up he would take it out on me and I was not alone. If one of his B"Mine: So, why did you keep trying to paint over my relationships fell apart, I bore the scars. He would voice, my words, my soul? carve his inky soul onto my skin and trace his nightmarish images and adolescent bullshit all over my Chad: I was trying to re%ne your spirit. body. Chad: You are over exaggerating. You picked up all that shit on your own. B"Mine: He always hated me. Chad: Thats not true, I loved you like all my other paintings. B"Mine: What for? Were you embarrassed of me? Was I not good enough for you? Why did you try to make your demons, my demons? The black rabbit still haunts me and as much as I try to repress the past it keeps seeping through. Chad: It!s like that for all of us brother.

Conversation with: I Forget to Think About You Almost Every Day

Chad: It is so good to see you, Forget to Think. This is Kyoukan Crisafulli. Forget to Think: It is very nice to meet your Kyoukan. Can I get you something to drink? Crisafulli: Supashi"bo Forget to Think, but I am %ne. How long has it been since you and Chad were together? Forget to Think: It has been 4 years since we shared the same home. We lived together till he gave me to Misuta Tweed. Now I live with him and help him run his shop. Your Japanese is very good Kyoukan Crisafulli. Have you ever visited Japan? Crisafulli: No, but I would like to someday. How did you learn such good English?

I Forget to Think About You Almost Every Day, Oil on Canvas, 2005
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Forget to Think: Misuta Chad taught it to me ever since I was born. I also watched much of television. Have you seen The Price is Right? I miss Misuta Barker, he was such a generous man. Crisafulli: Misu Forget to Think, I am told that you are very pleasant to the eye, so why do you turn away from us? Forget to Think: I can not look upon Misuta Chad without feeling grief and it would be wrong for me to feel such sad love for him; now that I belong to Misuta Tweed. Chad: I thought we were cool. Forget to Think: You are cool Misuta Chad and I try my best to forget to think about you almost every day.

ART APPRECIATION
Linger On: I aren!t no coward mister. Look what they did to this place, They!ve destroyed it. Crisafulli: What do you mean?

Conversation with: Linger On

Crisafulli: Linger On, where are you going in such a hurry? Linger On, Oil on Canvas, 2004 Linger On: I gett!n out of this place well the gett!ns still good. Crisafulli: Can we talk? Linger On: If you want to walk, but I don!t have the time to latty gad around. I already wasted too much time here. Crisafulli: Why you leaving? Linger On: Maybe I have a restless spirit or maybe I just just don!t belong here anymore. Crisafulli: Or maybe you!re a coward. Linger On: Look around you, everyone of them is a punk. They don!t respect anything or anybody. They all want to be Jack the Knife. It!s a sickness I tell ya and I wasn!t drawn to be a doctor. Crisafulli: So? Linger On: So if Chad wouldn!t get rid of them, I!m not going to hang around to watch the rest of this painting destroyed. So did you get what you came for? Crisafulli: (I said nothing and watched him try to walk away and then turned my back. I guess I didn!t have the guts to watch him self"destruct.)

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Conversation with: Don't Stand So close to Me

Chad: O.K. everybody, can I have your attention. Crisafulli has been gracious enough to talk to us today. Can you please all quiet down and direct your attention to him. He would like to...(Absorbed in their own circumstances they continue to talk over each other.) Girl with Knife: Yeah, I cut o& his head. You gotta problem with that? I!ll cut you too if you get any closer. Instructor: You!re standing too close again Farris. Painting now a days is all about... Pissing Angle sings, # I pee on Jesus, pay me,$ to the Long Ranger theme. Girl Being Bound by Cop: Help! The Three Monkeys: (Monkey 1) I didn!t see anything. (Monkey 2) You didn!t hear this from me but Chad digs white trash. (Monkey 3) Stop saying that. (Monkey 2) Saying what? Her and His: Hey, I!m trying to get laid over here. You guys are kind of a mood killer. Girl with Knife: If I could reach you, I would stab you right in the ass. Chad: Focus people! Our guest has a few questions for you so if you would not mind. . . this place. Jesus: Does anybody have an umbrella? (They all laugh and start to talk over each other once again.) Chad: So what is this painting all about? Crisafulli: Exactly what just happened. Don"t Stand So Close to Me, Oil on Canvas, 2001
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Crisafulli: Why do you think you!re here? (Pause " No one says a word.) Let me rephrase that. What in'uenced you when you came into being? (Still silence looms in the air.) Marilyn Manson: Welcome to the halfway house for the disturbed. I don!t mean to be disrespectful but our voices are de%ned by shocking you. If you are not going to let yourself be appalled by us, then we don!t know how to respond. We represent the new academy who openly parades their dirty little secrets for all to see, rather than hiding behind the insincerity of muddy landscapes and proper society. To you this looks like chaos, but we are honest even if it is hard to look at and di*cult to take in all at one time Monkey 3: Stop him! He!s driving me crazy! Monkey 2: He is so full of himself. Monkey 1: He!s just an Alice Cooper want to be. Instructor: I prefer Kiss to both of them. Maybe you can paint a picture of Kiss next, so we get some decent tunes in

ANTHONY CRISAFULLI

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Assignment: 4
remember, as with Chad Farris, paintings do not always re'ect the artist!s character. Sometimes they re'ect other things. You will need to watch the two videos that I have tagged on the %rst page of this chapter by Gladwell and Gilbert in order to gain insight into this assignment. They are 18 minutes each and truly a joy to watch. Remember: each one of you are special and will bring much of yourself into these conversations and in the end you all will gain in wisdom. Thank you for allowing me to write for you. You are to interview two works from any modern artist that we have not mentioned and present a small intro as well as both interviews. This will require you to do some background reading on the artist so you understand his/her character. But Professor Crisafulli Due: March 24th 2010