The LP’s labels where designed on Photoshop to look like Tom Waits’ latest album “Bad as me”. This artwork forms part of the exhibition “Tom Waits For No Man” curated by Gordon Froud and first showcased at the KKNK Arts Festival March 2013.  It is inspired by the song ‘Bad as me’ off Tom’s latest album. The chorus “You’re the same kind of bad as me”, I feel, is the epitome of who Tom Waits is and what he does best, i.e. making music inspired by the darker side of life that confronts us with a ‘kind of mirror’ in which we see the same darkness within ourselves. His acute ability to relate to the “fallenness” or “brokenness” of man is evident in this song and portrayed in the ‘bad ass’ reference I’ve chosen for my painting. I feel that both the song and this image, represent a man who has been to “hell and back”, done it all, and with no restraint on his own carnality, while the wire text reminds us of the same dissolute nature lurking in everyone of us.

The show was showcased at The University of Johannesburg Art Center in May, Grande Provence Wine Estate for the Literary Festival in June, and Oliewenhuis Gallery, Bloemfontein in August 2013.

  • Medium: Oil and painted wire text on a vinyl LP, mounted on a wooden backing
  • Size: 30cm in Diameter
  • Year: 2013