Ad rags recently buzzed with a test Crispin Porter + Bogusky distributed to their art directors:

Some people said the more pathetic responses garnered pink slips; CP+B announced it was merely to ensure the right kind of aesthestics were assigned to the proper types of projects.  I like the concept, either way, and stopped to consider how I’d answer.

I’d go with Wayne White and his Pee-Wee Herman set.  The unique, exploratory and innocent character of Pee-Wee needed a home that provided visual eclecticism, amazing contraptions, and a bold willingness to go places no other set designer had tried.

Not only did Wayne create a space that was intriguing on his own, he did it in tandem with another creative genius, enhancing an iconic character with unbridled vision, and allowing Paul/ Pee-Wee to expand and exploit another dimension of his act.

I had the opportunity to watch Wayne’s one-man performance last year at Largo, the closing night that ended up in “Beauty Is Embarrassing,” a movie about his life and art.  Afterwards I got the chance to speak with him, and show him a photo of my own puppet/costume, Miss Rotten Frosting.

As he signed my book, I told him my art would not be the same if I’d never seen his work.  In fact, my perception of the world would be altered.  Wayne did every piece of illustrations for Pee-Wee merchandise.  I scrutinized his hand-drawn letters, sketchy renders of Pee-Wee, and drew and drew and redrew the Pee-Wee citizens…  They were oozing, hairy, weird yet welcoming things.  I felt in his art that there might be a place for me on this earth.  That I might have a way to express my strange sense of humor and create the crazy visions I saw internally and in my dreams.

Wayne White did this for every child who watched Pee-Wee.  He did it without a need for recognition and without straying from his internal artistic motivation.  Plus he got paid.

I find mass- produced art fantastic.  Art isn’t just a money game played by billionaires or restricted to a language spoken only by academics.  It is a nonverbal and emotional form of communication between humans.  And that is as close to psychic connection we’ll get… until we make it to the next dimension.

As Jello Biafra says, “Don’t hate the media. Become the media.”

XO

suzymae