Wayne White

Chloe and I got to see Wayne White speak on Monday night. Holy wow. There are several ways in which this man's art has influenced my life. It was so great. Afterward we shook hands with him and Mimi! and thanked them for coming to Wichita. He looked at Chloe and said, "Let me guess. This is your mother?" Even though others were doing it, I did not have the heart to ask them to pose for another stupid  photo. Instead, I chose to be fully in that moment. The energy was so great! (You know when you share space with a great mentor? How it's like an exchange of gratitude for just that moment? His willingness to meet us there was refreshing...and so congruent with his talk/art.)

And now I guess we are being rewarded, because Chloe and I were invited to work with Wayne tomorrow morning! We will be assembling and helping with the build for the big puppets that will be going down Main for the Riverfest Parade. Cool Beans!

Here are the quotes I wrote down (I could have written a whole lot more, but again I chose to just be there, experiencing the wonder) from his life talk:

"All artists, at a young age, get a glimpse of a world we cannot reach." He went on to elaborate on how this process of reaching is what drives us to create. Every once in a while we reach it...and that is what keeps us coming back for more, creating...we get addicted to it.

On why he juxtaposes things like discarded old thrift store paintings and fancy long words: "...it's the coming together of two opposites to tell a greater profundity." He also went on to talk about how the dogs "magically" fit inside/emerged from this painting.

"Humor is a commodity."

"Riff like jazz. Improvise." "That's what the studio is there for; impulses."

"You gotta make a lotta shit to find that diamond."

"Learn on the job. Jump in, then do it."

On calling himself a "Puppet Expert": "I said I was, and then I did it."

On having an art piece totally misinterpreted: "Critics don't know shit."