Wayne White: Maybe Now I'll Get the Respect I So Richly Deserve

by Wayne White, Todd Oldham

Wayne Maybe Now I'll Get the Respect I So Richly Deserve is a monumental 400 page look at the deadpan, strange and endlessly mesmerizing body of work White has created in his 30 plus year career as a fine artist, illustrator, and director. Divided into two chapters and with an extended interview between Todd Oldham and the artist, this monograph first takes an intimate look at White's unpublished sketchbooks, drawings, and paintings during his tenure as co-creator of Pee Wee's Playhouse, music video director, and as art director for dozens of influential children's programs.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

384 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2009

Reviews

[Mimi Pond]

FANTASTIC! BEST ART BOOK EVER! Wayne White is a marvel to behold. His take on popular culture is astonishing, not to be missed!

[Ashley]

The documentary "Beauty Is Embarassing", by filmmaker Neil Berkeley and featuring artist Wayne White, formally introduced me to Wayne White's art, though apparently I grew up with his ideas, thanks to Pee Wee's Playhouse. His mission: to make art enjoyable. Good stuff. See the film!

[Bobby Dixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! Such a huge inspiration.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it, even though the book is heavy and hard to read in bed. Wayne White is delightful and amazing and familiar and hilarious. Good, good stuff.

[ash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Came for the art and left very satisfied! The interview was fine, but I didn’t expect much from a boomer white guy regardless of artistic talent, so that’s that. This is a nicely designed book, but I would have killed for it to be a more traditional coffee table size so as to better appreciate the detail in White’s work, especially his word paintings. Nicely done, regardless!

[Stop]

Read the STOP SMILING interview with Wayne White



Taking Off the Ankle Weights

Wayne White, who hails from rural Tennessee, is a Pop Art renaissance man. Largely self-taught, he has worked for three decades as an illustrator, painter, cartoonist and puppeteer. He is the creative mind behind a bevy of projects, ranging from the surrealistic Eighties television show Pee-wee’s Playhouse (for which he won three Emmy’s for his puppet designs) to art direction for the unforgettable Peter Gabriel video “Big Time” (for which he won a Billboard award for best Art Direction) to set designs for Smashing Pumpkins’ “Tonight, Tonight” and lithographed covers for the alt-country band Lampchop (he contributed artwork to four of the band’s albums). In more recent years, he has produced formal works of sculpture, and turned out an ongoing series of text-based pictures he makes from found paintings he covers in words and phrases, positioning the lettering into the original landscape. Although his word-driven art has been frequently compared to the work of Edward Ruscha, White assures STOP SMILING that he didn’t have Ruscha in mind when he first started painting in what has now become one of his signature styles. This past summer, coming off the heals of his Todd Oldham-designed first book, Maybe Now I’ll Get the Respect I So Richly Deserve (Ammo Books), White carved out some time to answer a few questions.

Read the interview...

See a slideshow of images from Maybe Now...

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recommend watching the documentary "Beauty is Embarrassing" about this artist. Very enjoyable and on netflix instant streaming.

[Kitap Yakıcı · Rating 3 out of 5]