Sharing The Passion

Another project I was working on along with the pieces for the David Lynch Foundation during our move was a secret one. Until now.

45s.

Yep. I'd avoided doing pieces on 45s because of the limited space. And because of the sizeable cost of ones that people would dig having painted.

Then along came Norm. Norm is one of those guys who would make me nervous in my earlier Vinyl Art days. A record collector's collector. A dealer.

Many dealers have snarled at me, incredulous that I ruin things of such collectible value. Most however, thankfully, end up really really REALLY getting what I do and loving my work. Norm came to me already loving my work.

And he wanted me to ruin $100-500 dollar 45s. My hands literally trembled when I started these. I'm a closet collector too, so I get what these meant.

And that's why this project worked. Shared passion. I didn't know about the Northern Soul movement before this beyond the fact that the Verve was from the area and had an aptly named album. But I love records, the physical manifestation of music. I love the feel, the history, the design, the creativity that goes into every part of a pressing.

Norm does too, and he had an idea. A series of 4 pieces based on the dance scene at the Wigan Casino in the '70s. The 4 singles would be the "3 before 8" and the final song played at the venue as described in the Wikipedia entry. Very collectible 45s. VERY. People who know and collect these might've involuntarily cringed just now.

But the idea was seriously cool. 4 scenes characteristic of the place: the exterior, the circle skirt the women wore, the backdrop dance move and the dancefloor. With color.

I'd never done anything like it, but Norm trusted my artistic vision. Introducing these pieces recently during an interview I said, and meant, that I was honored he'd go through with an idea like this with me. He said that I was a pleasure to work with, which is good.

Because it took a long time.

The coolest thing was though, that because it took so long, I was actually able to hand-deliver the pieces. See, while I was working on them, we moved. A mile away from Norm.

So here they are, in the order of their final playing in 1981:




Peace.