Statement

A recent lawsuit by photographer Patrick Cariou against artist Richard Prince and the Gargosian Gallery made me think once again about the issue of using images, photos, found on line by sometimes, sometimes not, anonymous photographers. I’ve always been conscious about using photographer’s images and credit there where I feel credit is due and know who it belongs to. It’s a fair guess that on average 90 out of the 100 of my paintings each year the source material is provided by someone else's camera. In my paintings of musicians, photographs are sometimes blatantly copied. Appropriation in some paintings is not an appropriate term to describe the transformation from photo into painting. I never felt a great urgency to address the issue but now that I’m publishing and selling these paintings I feel the need to publicly address my thoughts on it. I don’t know much about copyright laws and often don’t even know if an image I use is copyrighted. What I do know about copyrights is that it’s closely related to ownership. Copyrights are for sale. This blog and me are not the place or person to go into philosophical or political rant as I am only concerned here with the ethical aspect of me using photographs by others.

 One ethical issue in this whole debate on copyright infringement and fair use of images that–as far as I know–has not been tackled, are the rights of the people portrayed in the photographs. In most of my paintings I feel that I’m painting a portrait of a musician rather than copying a photograph. My concerns are with the characteristics of the person, not the characteristics of the photograph. It’s about the musician not the camera that at one instant provided a still of this musician. To me the photo of Obama for example, made by Associated Press photographer Mannie Garcia and famously appropriated by Shephard Fairey for the “Hope” poster, is a snapshot and it’s ownership should really belong to Obama himself, if anyone. It really is about Obama and nobody else. My motto for the Top 100 series is that it is about them (the musicians) and not about me and if I would pay a commission on my (very modest) sales of these, I would be happy to pay the musicians portrayed a percentage. When I look for an image of a musician I find suitable for a painting I browse through many many images. The image I pick is for me a snapshot of the musician. Sometimes this snapshot is a real work of art but usually it is just a snapshot from a camera of a fan. It makes no difference to me, it’s about the person portrayed, not the portrayer. If the I in the painting becomes more important than the subject of it, the Top 100 would lose its integrity and reason to exist. The I exists only in the plurality of images, the series of 100 paintings, in the magnitude of the project, all the lists, writings, all of the thousands of drawings and paintings created over many years. There is a little hypocrisy in this statement as I continue to sell individual paintings. (I wish I could keep the series together all sell them as one but that is not a realistic goal at this point.) It would also be hypocrite (but wise) to only use copyright free images. I would prefer to go around and collect the source materials with my own camera but this if highly impractical and impossible as many of the musicians I paint do not live anymore.

My Top 100 project is based on hobby. It started out as a fan adoring his musical heroes and paying tribute by making portraits of them. It used to be a private boy room thing. The hobby has became obsession and the whole of the project has left the boy’s room and entered the status of being art. I did not consider the project “Art” for a long time  and am still cautious but I do present it as such (by virtue of showing in galleries). Art or not art, stealing or fair use, commercial or educational, I am now starting the Top 100 2011.

Albania! (2)

The Joyfulaires
12" x 10"
oil on wood, 2011

The second installment of the two part series named Albania! marks the end of the Top 100 2010. In part one I discussed the relative obscurity of this country and her music, and how I've only seen it flying over en route to Greece. Part two then deals with Albanian's music outside the country's borders. The first one is from Ohio, the quintessential fly-over country in the US. I mentioned the Joyfulaires in the chapter Thrift Stores and even posted their photo. I didn't mention that the two Jeffries sisters and Dianna Woodgeard in that picture are from Albany, Ohio. Now six months later I painted these Albanians after I awarded them the #100 spot in the list. "Dianna is a young married student and has dedicated her talents to God. She was a neglected child, but God sent Mr. and Mrs. Pinney, wonderful christian parents, to adopt her as their own." (—The Joyfulaires, In the Valley He Restoreth My Soul)
Dianna plays piano in the group. Karen and Bonnie are young mothers who sing. Their phone number is listed on the LP and it's for me only a local call but I won't dial it (no, I'm not passing on that number either, it's 40 years old, for heaven's sake). The second group of Albanian musicians are immigrants in the "heel of Italy". More a destination than fly-over territory (unless, of course, you're from Rome and have business in Libya, or vice-versa). The musicians are an Albanian couple who, at Easter time, go from door to door to sing songs for a little food or money. I doubt if the couple singing on the record would have an outfit like the Albanian couple in the drawing. The music was recorded by Alan Lomax in 1950s. The copy I have is from the original release of that song on Music and Song of Italy. I hate to be sarcastic (this is the last chapter of the Top 100 2010, and I already quoted from the Joyfulaires' liner notes) but I can't resist quoting Mr. Alan Lomax in this sentence that probably wasn't reprinted when the music finally, fifty years later, was released on CD. "During the 19th century the accordion, which has done such severe damage to the old folk music of Central Europe, penetrated every region of Italy."

Since I installed the first part of Albania! I have met for first time real Albanians. They were running a Pizzeria on 6th Avenue (NYC) and were very pleasant and nice people. (Everybody would agree, I think, that the first impression you get from meeting somebody from a different country determines how you feel about a whole nation. Viva Albania!)

ciao

Albanian couple
11" x 8.5"
ink on paper, 2011

African Pop (part 2)

John Storm Roberts
15.25" x 9.75"
oil on wood, 2011

John Storm Roberts was an American ethno-musicologist born in England. He studied among other things, cross-pollination between African and American music and was through his record label Original, instrumental in the popularization of African music in the West. He spoke several African languages. I have an original Original record called Africa Dance, an album filled with great tunes from across the continent but with very little background information. For most tracks the performers aren't even named, let alone photographed. For the track I illustrated here with Roberts' image, all that is mentioned is name Leribe, a region in South Africa. It's a jazz tune. 

Malijo and Party appear on the record Sprigs of Time. The double album is a collection of world music from the EMI archives. They're actually from old 78s from the His Master's Voice archive, a label from The Gramophone Company that evolved into EMI to be more precise. The painting presented here to illustrate the song Muliranwawo by Malijo and Party is in all honesty poorly chosen. The image for the painting is taken from the cover of Living is Hard: West African Music in Britain, 1927–1929. In the notes to Sprigs of Time I had read of West African musicians cutting sides in England but this in fact applied to the musician Ben Simmons. Malijo recorded in his home country of Uganda in the 1950s, much later than Ben Simmons did.

Cover of Living is Hard
7.75" x 8.25"
oil on wood, 2011

The error of mine came to light because of my recent habit to check all the facts before publishing anything about a song but too late to make a new painting for the Top 100 2010 exhibition. So this little painting of a West African (musician) in Britain goes into my archive as the illustration for Malijo and Party.
The great habit of checking facts usually comes with finding so much more interesting anecdotes about the music I'm writing about. So when I researched the history of African musicians recording in Britain in the 1920s I learned that the first one to do so was a Nigerian called J.J. Ransome-Kuti in 1922, indeed Fela's grandfather! One of my quests for the already started Top 100 2011 is to find that recording.

Moondog

Moondog
14" x 7.5"
pastel on wood, 2011

Now that the storm has subsided and my mental state hit the safe green area again it's time to forward some more paintings. Actually I just took the Top 100 exhibition down and have now finally the remaining images available again for reproduction. First up is Moondog and he'll fit right in with these Norwegian heavyweights I discussed a while back. Not that his music is anything like black metal, far from it, but both Moondog and Norwegian Black Metal are inspired by the same Nordic mythology. Moondog could be seen in an outfit like this on the streets in New York City. That's where he lived, and performed before a German cinematographer took him to the promised land. From the streets of New York City to a house near the Rhine.  Now I grew up just a few miles from that river but it never struck me as a holy river. I certainly would not drink from the holy water (I wouldn't drink from the Ganges either, not that I'm against drinking...)  'The Viking of 6th Avenue' was a very colorful character and an esteemed composer, musician, and poet. Born Louis Hardin in 1916 in Kansas, exposed at a young age by the music of Native Americans that influenced the music he made later on. The LP Beat Jazz: Pictures from a Gone World contains his music together with the likes of Jack Kerouac, David Amram, to name a few. The track Up Broadway was #91 in the Top 100 2010. Moondog died in Germany in 1999.

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

A Big Swim!

Donia Massoud
19.5" x 9"
oil on wood, 2011

Yugoslavian woman in 
traditional dress
13" x 7.5"
oil on wood, 2011

Croatia is only a boat ride away from Egypt. Down the Adriatic and Ionian seas and across the Mediterranean. The inclusion of music from those countries brings the total to 32. I have not always payed attention but this must be a Top 100 record. It's a reflection of my ever increasing focus towards international music in my collection. I really collect records in the same manner how I collected stamps when I was much younger. The criteria were aesthetic, nothing more, nothing less. The Donia Massoud recording is a wailing song, an ever growing musical sub-collection of mine. The sound quality of it is poor, coming from an audience made concert recording. I found it on YouTube. Massoud is a guest vocalist in the band Massar Ekbar. I'm not too crazy about that band, the wailing of the solo guitar doesn't cut it for me but Massoud's wailing voice makes more than up for it. What a great mournful voice! The Croatian recording comes from the album Folk Music of Yugoslavia, it's a love song, what great happy voices! The recording dates of these two musical recordings are as long apart as it would take to swim from Croatia to Egypt: just a little more than half a century.

White Noise

Delia Derbyshire
10" x 7.75"
oil on wood, 2011

Top 100 2010, #90: White Noise - Love Without Sound
I used to be facebook friends with musician Roberto Carlos Lange but he must have edited his friends recently. I'll miss his frequent postings of the most interesting videos from the vaults of YouTube and his own. My favorite of those was Love Without Sound by White Noise.
White Noise is an English band formed by American born David Vorhaus in 1968. The first incarnation consisted of Vorhaus, Delia Derbyshire, and Brian Hodgeson. The trio's first album was the groundbreaking An Electric Storm that featured the track Love Without Sound. The song features samplings of Vorhaus' bass, sped up to make them sound like cellos and violins as well as Derbyshire's electronic sound effects. Derbyshire (1937-2001) worked for the BBC as a composer and sound engineer throughout the sixties and into the seventies. She is best known for her collaboration with Ron Grainer on the theme for Doctor Who. To refresh one's ties with universal consciousness you should watch the Doctor Who theme on YouTube. (Play it loud for the best connection!). Pink Floyd more than just quoted from this on their classic One of These Days. While you're at it...

African Pop (part 1)

Irewolede Denge (?)

8.5" x 6.5"
pastel on wood, 2011

S.E. Rogie

10.75" x 9"
oil on wood, 2011

There are fifteen tracks from Africa in the list of 100. All commercially produced recordings spanning almost a century, and originating from all over the continent: three from South Africa, Nigeria, and Ethiopia; two from Mali; and one each from Uganda, Sierra Leone, Algeria, and Egypt. Unlike past years, none were recorded in the field.  Many I already wrote about in the past 97 pages and before I start to get into next year's top 100 I'll briefly comment on those that I did not tackle before.

• Irewolede Denge is the musician that first used the term Juju to describe his music. Juju became the name for a Yoruba Nigerian urban style of popular music that emerged from the wider spread Palm Wine music in the late 1920s. The song Orin Asape Eko was recorded in 1937 and released on CD as the opening track to Juju Roots (Rounder, 1985), a chronological compilation of the history of Juju. Denge also is the provider of the last track on the CD recorded in the mid-1960s.
• S.E. Rogie (b. Sooliman Rogers, 1940s, Sierra Leone) is one the best known performers of Palm Wine music. Twist with the Morning Stars (1965) was the first African Pop record I owned. It hit my Top 100 charts in the late eighties. I've lost that record and this year's song Toomus Meremereh Nor Good comes from a compilation LP named Africa Dances.
• Alem Kebede from Ethiopia I found on the blog Awesome Tapes from Africa. The original tape was given to Brian Shimkovitz, proprietor of the blog, by his friend Jarboe (I assume that is the musician who was in the Swans). Ateremamesew is a track from that cassette recorded in the 1970s, the style being desribed as Ethio-Jazz.
• Sekouba Traore from Mali I've also found on Awesome Tapes from Africa. I've written extensively about him before (April, Sekouba Traore) and now there's a second track from the cassette Walinyumadon called Bèki de la Dô. I based his second illustration on the same (and only) photo found.

Alem Kebede
6.5" x 8.75"
pastel on wood, 2011

Sekouba Traore

8.75" x 6.5"
pastel on wood, 2011

Crossing the Blvd

Sergey Ryabtsev
15" x 9"
oil on wood, 2011

The exhibit Crossing the Boulevard is currently on view at the Urban Art Space in Columbus, Ohio until March 26. The exhibition was curated by Judith Sloan, a documentary maker and sound artist. I helped putting up the show and during the installation, as well as thereafter, I became intrigued with the contents. In the exhibition portraits are displayed from immigrants in Queens, NY, the most ethnically diverse spot in the world. Stories are communicated through photographs by Warren Lehrer and interviews by Judith Sloan. One can easily spend a few hours in the gallery looking, reading, listening to the interviews, and—yes... listen to musical examples from some of the immigrants portrayed. Of the latter category my favorite track is a violin improvisation by Russian born Sergey Ryabtsev. He's a member of the well known gypsy-rock band Gogol Bordello, led by Ukrainian born Eugene Hütz. Ryabtsev immigrated to Queens in 1994 and joined Gogol Bordello in 2000.

The Top 100 2010

1. Blooddawn – Nailed Fist                       
2. M.I.A. – Born Free                               
3. Vampyre Corpse – Dogs of War                   
4. Beth Orton – Conceived                       
5. Time and Temperature – Havana                   
6. Rahsaan Roland Kirk – Pedal Up                   
7. Trelldom – Sonar Dreyri                               
8. Imperial Palace Band – Seigaiha                   
9. Townes Van Zandt – Waiting Around to Die       
10. Tsjuder – Blasphemy                       
11. Song Poetry of North Vietnam (Hat a Dao): Ty-Ba       
12. Beth Orton – Shopping Trolley                   
13. Art Ensemble of Chicago – Thème de l’Amour Universal   
14. Torres Strait Islanders 1898 Death Wail               
15. Quechua of Bolivia – Ceremonial                       
16. Safra Bion Racu – Lament for Dead Brother           
17. Iry Lejeune – Calcasieu Walz           
18. Chikaha Rahma - Risakr Fi Simana       
19. Roberto Carlos Lange – Amazonian Pacific           
20. Darkthrone – Transylvanian Hunger               
21. Women from Ferroletto – Alla Campagnola           
22. Mishka Ziganoff – Koilen                           
23. Dollar Brand – Jabulani                       
24. Clarinetes de Linares – El Gallito Giro                       
25. Zhou Xuan – The Wandering Songstress                   
26. John Jacob Niles – Go ‘Way from My Window       
27. John Jacob Niles – Maid Freed from the Gallows Pole       
28. Be Good Tanyas – Waiting Around to Die            
29. Folk Dance in Hora Style (Rumania)                
30. Joni Mitchell – All I Want                       
31. Sekouba Traore – Walinyumadon                       
32. Fela Kuti – CBB (Confusion Break Bones)               
33. Smodern? – Miss Smodern                       
34. Antoñita Romero – El Berebito                   
35. Italy: Sardinia (anon. men’s choir) – Ballo Tondo           
36. Louise and Joseph Spence – Won’t That Be a Happy Time    
37. Imre Jankovics - Hárnas táncdal                   
38. Gamelan Gong – Lagu Kebiar                   
39. Bob Dylan – Mississippi                               
40. Ornette Coleman – Free Jazz                           
41. Joseph Moskowitz – Doina                       
42. Jolie Holland – Sweet Loving Man                
43. Massar Egbari w/Donia Massoud – Wailing Song       
44. South Africa Jazz (anon.) – Leribe               
45. Mother of Fire – The Beast and I                   
46. Beth Orton – Heartland Truckstop               
47. Nina Simone – I Ain’t Got No –I Got Life           
48. Chun Siu Lei – The New Lady Tan Kei               
49. Malijo and Party – Muliranwawo               
50. The Murder Party – Demo                   
51. Jessica Lea Mayfield – Kiss Me Again           
52. Chen Yin – Xiang Yu, the Conqueror Removing His Armour        
53. The Flaming Lips – Do You Realize               
54. Irewolede Denge and Dickson Oludaiye – Orin Asape Eko
55. Sekouba Traore - Bèki de la Dô                    
56. Bob Marley – Put it on                   
57. Tomo Jurcevic – Becarac                       
58. Edward Kamau Brathwaite – Wings of a Dove           
59. Helado Negro – Dahum                           
60. Ustad Vilayat Khan – Arrival in Benares   
61. Michael Hurley – Girl on a Billboard                   
62. The Gits – Twisting, Breathing                   
63. Nina Simone – Strange Fruit                   
64. Beth Orton - ♡ of Soul                       
65. The Wailwan Boree 1898 with Wadimiri               
66. Ornette Coleman – Voice Poetry                   
67. Lady G – Hey Gal                           
68. Pura Paku Alaman – Gending: Tedjånåtå            
69. Robert Pete Williams – I’ve Grown so Ugly           
70. Mihály Bársony – Tiszaújfalui tekerömuzsika           
71. Niela Miller – Baby, Please Don’t Go to Town           
72. Jonuzi Me Shokët – Vome Kabà                   
73. Cantonese Opera – The Moon/Two Green Lotus Bitterly Imprisoned
74. Zhou Xuan – Song of the Seasons           
75. Odetta – Virgin Mary Had One Son               
76. Arantza and Andoni Goikoetxea – Jota               
77. John Lee Hooker – She Left Me                   
78. Jimmy Peters and the Ring Dance Singers – J’ai fait tous le tour pays
79. Marie Osmond – Karawane                   
80. Beth Orton – Stolen Car                       
81. John Coltrane – Vigil                       
82. Sergey Ryabtsev – Improvisation                   
83. Yugoslavia: Croatia (anon) – Love Song           
84. Albanian couple from Italy – La Strinna           
85. Alela Diane – Dry Grass and Shadows
86. Kayesha Seta – Bali Kelele
87. Women from Beira-Baixa – Cançao de Embalar           
88. Aster Aweke – Track 8
89. Cat Power – Wonderwall
90. White Noise – Love Without Sound   
91. Moondog – Up Broadway   
92. Alem Kebede - Ateremamesew
93. Beth Orton - Worms
94. Pierre Henry – Psyché Rock
95. S.E. Rogie – Toomus Meremereh Nor Good
96. Burzum - Belus’ Død
97. David Allen Coe – The Baddest Motherfucker
98. Singing Train attendent, Japan
99. Jolie Holland – Love Henry
100. The Joyfulaires – (In the Valley) He Restoreth My Soul

...and Again (Awesome Tapes from Africa)

Chikaha Rahma
11.5" x 8"
oil on wood, 2011

...And Again. The blog Awesome Tapes from Africa is a major supplier for Top 100 material. Rirsakr Fi Simana is a song by Chikaha Rahma. He's from Algeria but I can't find any more info. At least there's a picture of him on the sleeve of the cassette the song's on. Quite a characteristic face indeed—it'll make you do some profiling. If you do, and if any negative sentiments come up, you got it all wrong. And that's all I say about it. Chikaha Rahma is featured in the very last top 10 of the year. Today is February 23 and that is the final day for the Top 100. Today I played all songs stuck on 9 points and the resulting top 10 are all newcomers in the list. I have to do a little checking and adding the numbers but tomorrow I will forward the final list of 100 songs. I still have to do 14 paintings before March 12th. And that date, my dear readers, is the date of the countdown and reception simply called The Top 100 2010. Everybody is invited, drinks are on me. Location: Skylab, 57 East Gay Street, Columbus, OH 43215. It all starts at 7:00 PM sharp. It'll take about 7 hours to play all 100 songs so the space is open to the public until 2:00 AM Sunday morning. If Columbus is bit too far for you to come maybe you can check out a big selection of the paintings at the White Columns booth at the New York Independent. The art fair that is a satellite to the better known Armory Show. This will take place March 3-6, 548 W. 22nd St., New York. The works shown there will not be featured at the Skylab show. Reproductions will take their place. But not to worry: the reproductions look great thanks to Zuzana Muranicova for printing them.

Albania!

Image from Folk and Popular Music of Albania
32.5" x 16"
oil on wood, 2011

Aah...Albania! I once flew over it on my way to Greece for a vacation. Greek records I have quite a few but as far as I'm aware there are only three songs in my record collection recorded in Albania. All made it one time or another into a Top 100. All are of folk music and at least two of them were originally commercial 78 shellac discs from before 1945. The latest is Vome Kabà by Jonuzi Me Shokët, recorded in Tirana in 1930. It appears on Sprigs of Time, a compilation of old 78s I acquired last year. I never found an image of Jonuzi Me Shokët or of any of the other Albanian performers I have on record but still had to paint a painting. In my running list of songs for the Top 100 2010 Vome Kabà used to have a star in front of it to designate that it still needs a painting. That star had been staring at me for almost half a year before I finally typed in the words "Folk Music of Albania" and clicked "image" on my Google menu bar. Of course there exists a record named Folk Music of Albania and I'd seen it before, they used to have in the Columbus library system. Not interested in its graphics I found Folk and Popular Music of Albania right next to it and on the cover two vintage photographs of the cutest (Albanian, I assume) girls appear. It's unlikely that there are female performers on Vome Kabà but it didn't keep me from painting one of the girls (the cutest of the cutest) as a placeholder. I wish I had that record Folk and Popular Music of Albania, or Folk Music of Albania for that matter as it would fit so nicely with Folk music of Rumenia and Folk Music of Yugoslavia, that also appear in this year's list.