CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE © David Silver
Music
Hand-painted Faux Show Cards, Wheatpastes & Woody Guthrie the Sign-Painter
Contrary to popular mythology, it was with paint brushes in hand, not a guitar, that [Woody] Guthrie hit the road for California. He had hocked his guitar . . . and it was his artistic skills that he brokered for room and board. –Nora Guthrie
For Woody Guthrie dot org © Shepard Fairey, Obey Giant
I’ve had more than my share of time on my hands the last few days – off my feet due to an accident – and I’ve been watching Turner Classics. We watched back-to-back The Grapes of Wrath, based on Steinbeck’s brutal retelling of the Dustbowl era and how big industry exploited American migrant workers during our great economic catastrophe (sound familiar?), and Bound For Glory, the story of Woody Guthrie’s phenomenal yet humble beginnings of an illustrious career played quite convincingly by David Carradine. During both films, the stark reality of how history repeats itself was made evident – and now yet again the American majority is being exploited by bailed-out banking institutions and holier-than-thou conservative politicians.
Woody Guthrie: Art Works - Rizzoli Books - Authors Steven Brower & Nora Guthrie
As I went walking I saw a sign there – And on the sign it said “No Trespassing.” – But on the other side it didn’t say nothing, – That side was made for you and me. – Alternative verse from This Land is Your Land – Woodie Guthrie
Woody’s first chosen pursuit was painting illustrations and text — he painted signs for businesses to earn a living as a young man before his music became the wellspring of his legacy. As powerful as music can be as medium for social change, the melding of slogans & graphic images has been a powerful and enduring propagandistic tool for both worthy and misguided causes. From Shepard Fairey‘s brilliant Obama Hope Campaign posters to the early hand-painted wall ads for tobacco companies, text and image has been used to persuade, convert, or pervert the masses. Naturally, I was delighted to see Fairey’s “exquisite print” he created for Guthrie’s centennial as a fundraiser when I went to the Official Guthrie Website after seeing the film of his early life. Yet even the simplest urging from a handcrafted store sign or for a sale generated by a stylistic grocery store show card can stop you in your tracks and send you down the aisle looking for a circular coupon. On the Kaufmann Mercantile blog the art of the “snappers,” the slang term that was used to call sign painters, is celebrated and analyzed.
Mixed type and tense lines. From Simplified Show Card Writing, Carl Rousseau Havighorst, 1942 via The Annie Show via Newhouse Books- Kaufmann Mercantile CLICK FOR LINK
Below are the works of who I believe to be a single anonymous snapper who has been posting show cards with wheat paste for ironic and dubious products at bargain prices from the shores of the Gowanus to the wigwams of Tacoma over the last eight years. No clue as to who he or she is but would love to give a proper artists’ credit to the creator of these humors ads with the stylish fonts.
Tacoma Faux Show Card Wheatpaste - Previously posted 8-27-2009 - © Frank H. Jump
Myrtle & Bedford Avenues in August 2005 - Previously posted on FAB on May 4, 2008
Sunset Park Industrial - Hamilton Ave - Previously posted on February 20, 2008 © Frank H. Jump
Other wheatpaste mural art:
Woody Guthrie sites of interest:
Buy Krasdale – Clinton Hill, Brooklyn
© Frenzo Jumposa
Buy Krasdale on the Internet:
- Flickr – Flickr – Flickr
- The Best (Worst) of NY Art – L Magazine
- Buy Krasdale – The CD
THE BAND - CD UNIVERSE
Remembering Memphis – Don’t Forget About Elvis & Dusty – Crossing the Mississippi – August 2009
© Vincenzo Aiosa
The Kings Court - CLICK FOR EXTENSIVE DETAILS ON THIS RECORDING
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) – I Forgot to Remember to Forget – Recorded in Memphis TN, 1955
© Vincenzo Aiosa
Dusty in Memphis – Don’t Forget About Me – Recorded in Memphis, September 1968
Original cover European release on Phillips records
Original liner notes from 'Dusty in Memphis'
Rhino re-release with BONUS TRACKS!
Rhino Records re-release
- Dusty in Memphis – Dusty Springfield (Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien – 16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999) – Wikipedia
© Vincenzo Aiosa
© Vincenzo Aiosa
© Vincenzo Aiosa
Pyramid Arena - CLICK FOR WIKIPEDIA LINK © Vincenzo Aiosa
Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine) Bob Dylan – Intersection of Church & Gay – Nashville, TN
© Frank H. Jump
You say you love me
And you’re thinkin’ of me
But you know you could be wrong
You say you told me
That you wanna hold me
But you know you’re not that strong
I just can’t do what I done before
I just can’t beg you anymore
I’m gonna let you pass
And I’ll go last
Then time will tell just who fell
And who’s been left behind
When you go your way and I go mine
– Bob Dylan
Recorded at Columbia Studios in Nashville, Tennesee in 1966:
“Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)” is the first track of the second disc of the 1966 album Blonde on Blonde, the seventh album from singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Dylan released the song as a single twice during his career, once in 1974, charting at #66 in the US and again in 2007, charting at #51 in the UK. – Wikipedia
In Arizona – Kokopelli Plays His Flute – Where is His Green Card? – Tucson, AZ
In a bar in Tucson AZ © Frank H. Jump
Who is Kokopelli? CLICK TO PLAY
Known as a fertility god, prankster, healer and story teller, Kokopelli has been a source of wonder throughout the country for centuries. Kokopelli embodies the true American Southwest, and dates back over 3,000 years ago, when the first petroglyphs were carved. Although his true origins are unknown, this traveling, flute-playing Casanova is a sacred figure to many Southwestern Native Americans. Carvings of this hunch-backed flute-playing figure have been found painted and carved into rock walls and boulders throughout the Southwest. – Indigenous People dot net
