I’ve made images that incorporate text as a sort of canvas that creates an image when seen from certain distances, usually important people or writer’s whose faces are inside words they had said or written. I had called the series of these images “Speech,” because frankly I wasn’t in the mood to think of something that wasn’t straight out of an art school show. I have made a considerable amount of money with these images, mostly for the Artrageous auctions where the proceeds go to fund various programs and supplies at Montserrat College of Art. The first one I ever made featured Abraham Lincoln. That’s the back story as to these images. Now I want to tell you the back story to this one.
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones are a ska-punk band that was formed in 1983 in Boston, Massachusetts and during the 90’s became one of the key bands that brought this genre into mainstream music. With over 20 years under their belts as a band and even after the passing of ska punk’s mainstream influence they are still going strong. Every year, they preform a special series of concerts in Boston known as the Hometown Throwdown as a way to thank their local fan base and to end the year with a bang. I have been fortunate enough to attend this event for three years. The energy in these concerts is really unlike anything else I know and I can’t get enough of it.
Every completed piece in “Speech” usually focuses on a dead politician or writer, someone who has left words behind that have been remembered. The reason I create these images at all is because that these people who left those words or wrote the speeches and passages that are still with us today are still very much alive because of them. The words give them a sorta of life of their own. And to me personally, the songs of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones have been music thank I can learn from. This band makes me happy that I happen to live in this part of the world near Boston, hell, it even makes me feel proud to be from this area. And I wanted to get that feeling down somehow. So I decided to make a “speech” for someone who was still alive, the song writer and front man himself Dicky Barrett.
I used the song that I had heard the most by the Bosstones “The Impression That I Get” (below) which was played heavily during the nineties and the song that launched their career into the mainstream. It was either that or the first Bosstones song that I ever heard, called “I Wrote It.” Finding the right image to use as reference was actually not as bad as I thought it was going to be, I managed to stumble on a great site online and found exactly what I was looking for (also below). I tried to make this one a little differently, using more materials to create a greater sense of depth with colors. The transparent layers stacked up on each other like an animation cel, everything stacked on top of each other in the right order. I was constricted by the text from the song but it wasn’t too great of a hassle to work with. I had to make sure everything fit together nicely or else the whole thing would fall to crap.
After finally getting the layers together, constantly trying to frame it straight and almost killing myself every time I messed up and had to try again, I did manage to finish the damn thing. I would like to think that this piece was the next step in how I make these particular pieces of art, but I had to make sure that I kept the same sensibilities in this piece that I had when I made the first print with Abraham Lincoln. So I had finally gotten it done despite setbacks.
I decided to give it to Dicky himself, a fan gift I suppose. I felt it was the least I could do for a man who had written songs that have offered me a great many things. They helped me unwind when I desperately needed to, offered me ideas about how to write and gave me insight on things that I was clueless about otherwise. I suppose I could call him a hero of mine because of how much I respect him. I had thought to deliver it somehow at the upcoming throwdown, but the likelihood of this actually working was slim. I lived on the Bosstones fan forums for any possible clues and I discovered my possible opportunity. On the evening before the third show, the band met up at an Irish bar called “McGreevy’s” on Boylston St. in Boston for a fan meet and greet. After the times were confirmed,
So I got on the train that evening on December 30th 2011, heading to a place I’d never been to before carrying the print in a plastic sleeve in my messenger bag. I found the bar. Got in the unruly crowd within the bar, sneaking through whoever I could to get to the back. I remember seeing a lot of the people from the show I attended a few days before, it was a little crazy. But to make a long story short:
So that's the story. I didn’t mean to sound sentimental or mushy, I suppose it can’t be helped. I'm putting up here in the ethers of the internet for the world to read. I can only hope that you, dear readers, can get something from all this. And that I don't get sued. But that's just something I hope for every day when I wake up.
-Jordan
