Well known and Well Loved

Not all Top 100 entries come from anthropological sources. Like anyone else I do enjoy recordings from the contemporary music industry from the good old United States. Three examples of some exciting popular music happened to be up for painting conforming to their respective position on the lists. These are the number 9 of 2021, and numbers 68 and 70 of 2020.

Miles Davis with James Mtume, 11x14 inches, oil

Rated X by Miles Davis was recorded as part of the On the Corner sessions in 1972. The song didn't make it to the On the Corner album but was then released on the compilation Get Up With It. Rated X is one of those rare Miles tracks in which he does not play the trumpet but sticks to an organ. For the double portrait I paired Miles with percussionist James Mtume. The image is taken from a still from a 1973 concert in Vienna.

Wayne Coyne and Yoshimi P-We, 11x14 inches, ink

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Part 2 by the Flaming Lips was next in the 2020 series that are all on 11x14 paper. I paired the main singer, songwriter, and guitarist of the Flaming Lips Wayne Coyne with Yoshimi P-We, who was the inspiration for the song and album it appears on from 2002, and whose cries and yelps are heard on this otherwise instrumental song. Yoshimi P-We is the drummer of the legendary Japanese band the Boredoms as well the singer of the all female OOIOO. The other Flaming Lips members at the recording sessions for the Yoshimi album are Steven Drozd and Michael Ivins.

Lana Del Rey, 14x11 inches, ink on paper

Then at number 70 is the song Love or Young and in Love as it's sometimes called. It was written and performed by Lana De Rey. This is the first time I did a portrait of Del Rey. Some of her peers (read: Cat Power, but also Fiona Apple) have been portrayed multiple times. Love comes from her 2017 album Lust for Life.

Wrapping Up (in a giant hamster ball)

Wayne Coyne (The Flaming Lips)
20 x 24 inches, oil on canvas, 2017

The new Top 100 has already started but a few entries from the last are still missing. Do You Realize by The Flaming Lips was the highest without a painting. The song is at #3 in the Top 100 2015/16 and is one of the few rock songs in that list. Rock stars are usually not well represented and not my my favorite to paint therefor this one is so late. The Flaming Lips and especially Wayne Coyne (recording with Miley Cyrus recently) are certainly rock stars. The portrait was done on a landscape painting that served as a demo for the "Expressive Landscape Painting" class at the Center for the Arts at Bonita Springs.

Pop Music

 Pierre Henry
6" x 8"
pastel on wood, 2011

The Top 100 has ended and a new year has just begun. Is doesn't keep me from dwelling a little more on the old before I start the new. The are still numerous paintings belonging to the old I haven't shown yet. There's the Pierre Henry for example, a pastel I finished a few days before opening reception. Pierre Henry is a French contemporary composer but the tune is a pop tune, it's called Psyché Rock and it was originally intended for a ballet by Maurice Bejart. The version in the Top 100 is a remix though, recorded by Fatboy Slim in 1997. Not too many pop tunes in the Top 100 but the one by The Flaming Lips Do you Realize? may well be the iconic pop song of the past decade. Personally I can't think of another. And what would be the most emblematic song of 1990s? I think this is Wonderwall by Oasis, a version of which is also represented in the 100 by ways of Cat Power's cover version from the John Peel Sessions. If you haven't seen the show yet there are some open Gallery Hours before I take it down on Sunday: Today from 3–7, Friday from 4–7, and Saturday 3–7 again. All at Skylab, 57 E. Gay St., Columbus, OH.

The Flaming Lips
7" x 7"
oil on wood, 2011