Using large backlit sheets of clear plastic stretched across wooden posts on a stage as his canvas, Santa Monica lifeguard and shark-wrestler, Norton Wisdom, performs live improvised painting onstage with musicians, interpreting the music being improvised during the performance in real time. His paint is dilluted to stay malleable, so his paintings remain in continual motion, through Wisdom's use of paintbrushes, windshield wipers, sponges, and his own hands.
Unlike most painting, his live work does not aim for a finished image, but celebrates the process of fluid metamorphosis: a cornucopia of images emerging unpredictably from one another: clouds become bodies, bodies become musical instruments, buildings become rockets, and dinner plates become crowns worn by monarchs, in a labrynth of unexpected paths. The live experience of his work continually challenges your perception of what you think you are seeing, and your ability to predict how forms and shapes relate to each other.
A local gem of Los Angeles, Wisdom has been invited to paint all over the world, including Bali, Turkey, and Morocco. The venues for his painting performances range from punk clubs, to prestigious concert halls, to the Berlin Wall upon which he made guerilla paintings prior to its demolition. Wisdom performs regularly with Stephen Perkins (Jane's Addiction), Mike Watt (Minutemen), and Nels Cline (Geraldine Fibbers/Wilco/etc.), under the moniker, Banyan; however, he has also performed with a wide range of artists as diverse as the National Bamboo Orchestra of Bali, Beck, and my own band, The Autumns.
I conducted this interview with Norton Wisdom at his home in 2003, and took the accompanying photographs of Wisdom in 2003 and 2004.
Unlike most painting, his live work does not aim for a finished image, but celebrates the process of fluid metamorphosis: a cornucopia of images emerging unpredictably from one another: clouds become bodies, bodies become musical instruments, buildings become rockets, and dinner plates become crowns worn by monarchs, in a labrynth of unexpected paths. The live experience of his work continually challenges your perception of what you think you are seeing, and your ability to predict how forms and shapes relate to each other.
A local gem of Los Angeles, Wisdom has been invited to paint all over the world, including Bali, Turkey, and Morocco. The venues for his painting performances range from punk clubs, to prestigious concert halls, to the Berlin Wall upon which he made guerilla paintings prior to its demolition. Wisdom performs regularly with Stephen Perkins (Jane's Addiction), Mike Watt (Minutemen), and Nels Cline (Geraldine Fibbers/Wilco/etc.), under the moniker, Banyan; however, he has also performed with a wide range of artists as diverse as the National Bamboo Orchestra of Bali, Beck, and my own band, The Autumns.
I conducted this interview with Norton Wisdom at his home in 2003, and took the accompanying photographs of Wisdom in 2003 and 2004.
WISDOM: Well, Nels has committed his life to this vision that he has. He's very focused on not compromising in what he believes is time well spent: creating something vital and relevant to our nature. And I think he's created something inextinguishable. It can't be undone. I think time will show that there's something priceless about what he has contributed to music. And he's paid the price for it. You know, you hear every so often of guitarists who have had to sell their guitars to pay their rent, but Nels has had to sell his guitar strings to feed himself. What an inspiration to know that kind of commitment exists, especially knowing how utterly non-exhibitionistic he is about it. To work in such close proximity to that kind of fire and sincerity...I'm honored.
Nels and I recently performed at a big fund raiser at the Laguna Beach Art Museum. He showed them what music will sound like three centuries from now, and we were never invited back. That's what I like about him.
ELKINS: I remember being on a hiking trip in rural Utah a year ago, and stopping at this bar in the middle of nowhere called "Bit and Spur," and discovered that the bartender and all the locals knew who you are, because you perform there.
WISDOM: Oh yeah, I know Bit and Spur. Near Zion National Park. I play there a lot, actually.
ELKINS: You've performed with a lot of unusual people in a lot of unusual places. What's the strangest gig that you've played?
WISDOM: They're all strange. They all start out with, "No you're not going to paint in my club!" That's the first thing I hear when I walk in the door.
Nels and I recently performed at a big fund raiser at the Laguna Beach Art Museum. He showed them what music will sound like three centuries from now, and we were never invited back. That's what I like about him.
ELKINS: I remember being on a hiking trip in rural Utah a year ago, and stopping at this bar in the middle of nowhere called "Bit and Spur," and discovered that the bartender and all the locals knew who you are, because you perform there.
WISDOM: Oh yeah, I know Bit and Spur. Near Zion National Park. I play there a lot, actually.
ELKINS: You've performed with a lot of unusual people in a lot of unusual places. What's the strangest gig that you've played?
WISDOM: They're all strange. They all start out with, "No you're not going to paint in my club!" That's the first thing I hear when I walk in the door.
WISDOM: Well, Nels has committed his life to this vision that he has. He's very focused on not compromising in what he believes is time well spent: creating something vital and relevant to our nature. And I think he's created something inextinguishable. It can't be undone. I think time will show that there's something priceless about what he has contributed to music. And he's paid the price for it. You know, you hear every so often of guitarists who have had to sell their guitars to pay their rent, but Nels has had to sell his guitar strings to feed himself. What an inspiration to know that kind of commitment exists, especially knowing how utterly non-exhibitionistic he is about it. To work in such close proximity to that kind of fire and sincerity...I'm honored.
Nels and I recently performed at a big fund raiser at the Laguna Beach Art Museum. He showed them what music will sound like three centuries from now, and we were never invited back. That's what I like about him.
ELKINS: I remember being on a hiking trip in rural Utah a year ago, and stopping at this bar in the middle of nowhere called "Bit and Spur," and discovered that the bartender and all the locals knew who you are, because you perform there.
WISDOM: Oh yeah, I know Bit and Spur. Near Zion National Park. I play there a lot, actually.
ELKINS: You've performed with a lot of unusual people in a lot of unusual places. What's the strangest gig that you've played?
WISDOM: They're all strange. They all start out with, "No you're not going to paint in my club!" That's the first thing I hear when I walk in the door.
Nels and I recently performed at a big fund raiser at the Laguna Beach Art Museum. He showed them what music will sound like three centuries from now, and we were never invited back. That's what I like about him.
ELKINS: I remember being on a hiking trip in rural Utah a year ago, and stopping at this bar in the middle of nowhere called "Bit and Spur," and discovered that the bartender and all the locals knew who you are, because you perform there.
WISDOM: Oh yeah, I know Bit and Spur. Near Zion National Park. I play there a lot, actually.
ELKINS: You've performed with a lot of unusual people in a lot of unusual places. What's the strangest gig that you've played?
WISDOM: They're all strange. They all start out with, "No you're not going to paint in my club!" That's the first thing I hear when I walk in the door.
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