Musicians Making Art: 1 - Esther
It’s something we’ve all seen but it’s a minefield & for the stick they often get, we sometimes wonder why they do it. I’m talking about musicians that decide to share their art. Don’t get me wrong – I’m a teacher that makes art (& writes about art here, apparently…) so I mind my own business when it comes to the multidisciplinary lifestyle of others. Like all art, some of it is great & some is terrible but I do look on in bewilderment at some musicians that get very serious about their artwork. I look at their huge exhibitions & wonder how they have the creative energy. Of course, lots of musicians started off as art students then started bands so perhaps have some experience & an art practise already. Others are staggeringly good & you wonder whether the world is really fair at all. As I say, it’s a minefield.
Of course, if you are artistic, you can use your art for your record covers or – unwisely – concept. I’ve chosen people whose music I actually like & found that there are in fact too many for a single blog entry. Happily for me, it means another series…
Bob Dylan
I’m starting with Bob because he’s probably the best known on this list. Also, I adore Bobby. I don’t care what anyone thinks of his art (or indeed his music), in fact I don’t really plan to have an opinion on it because as far as I’m concerned, he can do what he likes, being Bob Dylan & all. This sounds like a build-up to something dodgy but you can decide for yourself. The Bob Dylan painting that sticks in my mind the most is the one for the cover of Songs From the Big Pink by The Band; in truth, it’s a detail from the painting. A figure leans over, lying on a piano as if attempting to play it upside down. You wonder if there are drinks involved. You look at it & think, why? Then you think, well why not?
There’s a documentary film from 1987 (Omnibus: Getting to Dylan) where Bob uses drawing as a confrontational tool, almost a weapon. He decides he’s going to draw the interviewer with a ballpoint on paper. He attacks the paper as the poor man asks his questions; he scrapes, scratches & saws at it. He answers the questions but because he’s drawing the interviewer, he has to give him some very prolonged stares. At this time, Bob is making a film & is wearing some fairly heavy eyeliner & looks exceptionally cool so it must’ve been daunting. I’m not going to judge the result.
Adam Ant
Adam Ant is one of the musicians that can properly do it. An attendee of Hornsey Art College, his sense of the visual seeped into everything he did musically. This led to a sophisticated idea of how things should look onstage, in videos & in cover art. He could even employ his artistic skills to create storyboards for the band’s videos. Initially he was working at a time when punk’s DIY ethos & lack of money in the UK necessitated methods of making & distributing records at ground level; adverts & flyers were handmade & photocopied. Having a singer/musician in your band like Adam, as driven to succeed & to create the best work he could meant that you cut out some of the middle men, especially if he knew his way round black & white work. Incorporating all his influences into his image, packaging & music & utilising his obsessive work ethic to maximum effect, Adam Ant sustained a career that ultimately morphed into something much more colourful but with an artist’s eye that has remained at the centre of all he has ever done.
Will Sergeant
As well as being one of the greatest guitarists to emerge from the post-punk era, Will Sergeant has been involved in a range of collaborative & performance-based projects for many years. In his visual art, he creates mainly abstract pieces in acrylics & screenprints & exploits colour as an expressive & evocative tool. They are nevertheless highly controlled works & reflect the discipline & crooked order he applies to his guitar playing. I recommend his very lovely website:
Gaye Advert
A qualified graphic designer, Gaye was bassist of The Adverts in the early days of punk. Much of her work is reminiscent of this former life & the “do it yourself” philosophy, reusing what has gone before & using stained glass, acrylics & collage in her range of media. For a disillusioned former musician that moved into other fields of work, the internet has provided an outlet for selling & showing her art to a wider audience (& as such necessitates a watermark). As a fan, it’s also very pleasant to own some of her bottlecap badges – I do love wearable (& affordable) art.
John Squire
In much the same way as Pearl Thompson & Daniel Ash (mentioned in other blog entries), John Squire set a tone, style & a very particular image for his band The Stone Roses. It gave their records an extremely distinctive identity. His art was a contributing factor in the perception of them as being above a particular mentality in UK music at the time. If you were a bit arty, you weren’t as laddish (read thuggish & wilfully ignorant) such was the binary attitude in 1990s popular culture. In this sense, it was a triumph – The Stone Roses were embraced by a broader fanbase than they might otherwise have been.
Nick Cave
If you search for “Nick Cave artwork” you are bound to come across “the other Nick Cave,” Nick Cave the African-American sculptor & performance artist. Today this is not the Nick Cave I mean. I’m talking about Nick Cave the Australian singer, writer & musician. Both are giants in their respective fields & both have been known to be highly controversial, but otherwise the difference between them is vast. Nick Cave the singer also attended art school though & is known in part for his bombastic, dramatic songs full of thunder, murder & thuggery. He also has a healthy, oft-overlooked sense of humour. His written work is peopled by supposedly virile & terrifying, domineering men; the juxtaposition of this usual imagery & this weird, flaccid man with his tiny, apologetic penis is why this self-portrait works so well. Despite the joke, are we seeing an emotionally vulnerable & impotent Nick through this self-image? As well as being an amusing aside, the illustration is a lucrative favourite at the merchandise stall & website of his band, selling t-shirts (I might have one), tea towels & even dolls (labelled “this is not a toy”).
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