Artist Statement
All work and no play make Jack a dull boy. All work and no play make Jack a dull boy all… no no wait, that ain’t right? I saw that in a movie somewhere, oh yea, the shining with Jack Nicholson…shit, look what happened to that dude!
Artists statement, artists statement, hmm ok, I know! Do you want to know what makes Pat O’Donnell tick? What’s his motivation? Well!… let me slip on my turtleneck sweater, tent my fingers under my chin and try and explain it to you…
I was born in a tar paper shack, under a railroad bridge in a small town just east of a place you’ve never heard of! My aunt Betsy Trotwood arrived and…I ..no no no wait, sheeeyat!
That ain’t gonna work either…
Artists statement, artists statement, fartist waitment, Justine Batement…ah shit! Screw it! Just the facts ma’am, as that cop on Dragnet used to say. Outside of twice-a-week classes at St. Mary’s Grammar School, in 7th and 8th grades, I never took art lessons in my life. I did, however, begin to work (summers at first) on a house painting crew at the age of 12 in 1972. (What’s the statute of limitations on suing someone for that?) Rarely did I ever even get to paint in those first few summers! Mostly it was all prep work for the old guys on the crew unless it was behind the “pricker” bushes or razor-sharp holly trees. Nope! It was all scrape, scrape! Pick up all the trash, scrape, ride my bike to get coffee or sandwiches for the guys, scrape, help fold the drop cloths and then wash everyone’s brushes at the end of the day. Ah, the good ole days of child labor and long mundane apprenticeships! Ok, so where was I!…oh yea, I would begin cleaning the brushes by wiping them off first on an old piece of plywood or a discarded bit of Sheetrock and…(this is where the wavy lines symbolizing a flashback come in) eyes look, …eyes squint…eyes open again wide CAVEMAN MAKE PICTURE !…PICTURE LOOKS LIKE ANTELOPE!…CAVEMAN OWN ANTELOPE SOUL WITH PICTURE PAINT!…ART FORUM SOON COME LOOK CAVEMAN FOR!…CAVEMAN SOON RECOGNIZED FOR GENIUS AM !!!….(wavy lines again fade out )” Stop fuckin around kid and hurry up! We gotta get outta here….TODAY !!!….well, HA HA HA, as Phyllis Diller used to say. House painting was just a one-way ticket to more house painting !… Now if this were a movie, the montage would come in right about here…I scrape and paint a red house….I paint a yellow house the leaves are turning red and gold as I paint a blue house…a silent loud argument with a girlfriend… a lot of boozing a smashed mirror!… Hey, maybe get Kiefer Southerland to play me in my middle years…..then I turn 18! 1977 happens! You know, the whole punk-rock thing! Music, dada, musical dada, anarchy, musical anarchy…D.I.Y.! Jonny, Joey, Dee Dee, Tommy…Bingo Bango Bongo and Irving! I discover the Shaggs, Pink Flamingos, and Tura Satana in Faster Pussycat Kill Kill! Punk rock poster art D.I.Y. everything! In those days you would start a band then, go out and buy some guitars…you know, “ok, so I’ll play guitar and you play bass and we’ll get Mikey to play drums!” …” but he won’t like it. He hates everything!”…” he likes it. Hey Mikey!”…. I thought to myself “I gotta get my friends back together”… I thought, Plywood, get over here and meet me. Housepaint” “Housepaint, this is plywood. You two will be working together today !” And you could almost hear them speaking in fake English accents… “We are happy, aren’t we darling? ‘yes dear we’re happy. Ever so happy. Really we are”.. and from that day to this, a few bad blocks and potholes aside, …we have been terribly happy! We’re ever so happy!…. Really we are!
Artist statement by Patrick O’Donnell
All work and no play make Jack a dull boy. All work and no play make Jack a dull boy all… no no wait, that ain’t right? I saw that in a movie somewhere, oh yea, the shining with Jack Nicholson…shit, look what happened to that dude!
Artists statement, artists statement, hmm ok, I know! Do you want to know what makes Pat O’Donnell tick? What’s his motivation? Well!… let me slip on my turtleneck sweater, tent my fingers under my chin and try and explain it to you…
I was born in a tar paper shack, under a railroad bridge in a small town just east of a place you’ve never heard of! My aunt Betsy Trotwood arrived and…I ..no no no wait, sheeeyat!
That ain’t gonna work either…
Artists statement, artists statement, fartist waitment, Justine Batement…ah shit! Screw it! Just the facts ma’am, as that cop on Dragnet used to say. Outside of twice-a-week classes at St. Mary’s Grammar School, in 7th and 8th grades, I never took art lessons in my life. I did, however, begin to work (summers at first) on a house painting crew at the age of 12 in 1972. (What’s the statute of limitations on suing someone for that?) Rarely did I ever even get to paint in those first few summers! Mostly it was all prep work for the old guys on the crew unless it was behind the “pricker” bushes or razor-sharp holly trees. Nope! It was all scrape, scrape! Pick up all the trash, scrape, ride my bike to get coffee or sandwiches for the guys, scrape, help fold the drop cloths and then wash everyone’s brushes at the end of the day. Ah, the good ole days of child labor and long mundane apprenticeships! Ok, so where was I!…oh yea, I would begin cleaning the brushes by wiping them off first on an old piece of plywood or a discarded bit of Sheetrock and…(this is where the wavy lines symbolizing a flashback come in) eyes look, …eyes squint…eyes open again wide CAVEMAN MAKE PICTURE !…PICTURE LOOKS LIKE ANTELOPE!…CAVEMAN OWN ANTELOPE SOUL WITH PICTURE PAINT!…ART FORUM SOON COME LOOK CAVEMAN FOR!…CAVEMAN SOON RECOGNIZED FOR GENIUS AM !!!….(wavy lines again fade out )” Stop fuckin around kid and hurry up! We gotta get outta here….TODAY !!!….well, HA HA HA, as Phyllis Diller used to say. House painting was just a one-way ticket to more house painting !… Now if this were a movie, the montage would come in right about here…I scrape and paint a red house….I paint a yellow house the leaves are turning red and gold as I paint a blue house…a silent loud argument with a girlfriend… a lot of boozing a smashed mirror!… Hey, maybe get Kiefer Southerland to play me in my middle years…..then I turn 18! 1977 happens! You know, the whole punk-rock thing! Music, dada, musical dada, anarchy, musical anarchy…D.I.Y.! Jonny, Joey, Dee Dee, Tommy…Bingo Bango Bongo and Irving! I discover the Shaggs, Pink Flamingos, and Tura Satana in Faster Pussycat Kill Kill! Punk rock poster art D.I.Y. everything! In those days you would start a band then, go out and buy some guitars…you know, “ok, so I’ll play guitar and you play bass and we’ll get Mikey to play drums!” …” but he won’t like it. He hates everything!”…” he likes it. Hey Mikey!”…. I thought to myself “I gotta get my friends back together”… I thought, Plywood, get over here and meet me. Housepaint” “Housepaint, this is plywood. You two will be working together today !” And you could almost hear them speaking in fake English accents… “We are happy, aren’t we darling? ‘yes dear we’re happy. Ever so happy. Really we are”.. and from that day to this, a few bad blocks and potholes aside, …we have been terribly happy! We’re ever so happy!…. Really we are!
Artist statement by Patrick O’Donnell