dan lacey in the nyt

[gypsy]

on the front page, even:

Market interest has also helped small-time artists like Dan Lacey, of tiny Elko, Minn., a self-described disillusioned conservative who made a name for himself last year in the blogosphere with his inexplicably strange portraits of Senator John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin depicted with pancakes stacked on top of their heads.

Lately, he has turned to Mr. Obama, cranking out both eBay-ready conventional portraits — “I hate to say this, but I can do ones like that in about an hour,” he said — and even stranger works that have tended toward portrayals of the 44th president naked on a unicorn, often performing gallant deeds like wrestling a bear on Wall Street or taking the controls of the US Airways flight that landed in the Hudson River.

“There’s a consistent demand for Obama, both for things that are funny and also for the serious, sort of Aaron Shikler kinds of treatments,” said Mr. Lacey, referring to the artist who painted well-known portraits of the Kennedy family.

[Georgia]

Wow! Good for him!

Got my Tasha and Megan portrait yesterday...can't wait to get it framed and added to the studio with my other Tasha pieces.

[Tess]

Front page of the New York Times, you say?

[earlnemo]

Huh.


I don't think Raincrow has ever been covered by the NYT.

[samorost]

I've been holding this in for a while and it's gotta come out....

I'm as confounded as Raincrow about the popularity of this Lacey guy. Not to be a jerk about it, but I don't find anything that Lacey has done interesting.

The "pancake on the head" thing has been around since that bunny back in 2003. It was a fall back tactic for many low-talent chop artists in fark photoshop contests, until even they got bored with it.

Then Lacey drags it back out five years later, mashing old internet cliches with new internet cliches and selling the results on eBay. I might feel differently if the work was visually appealing or the composition was clever. Lacey admits that he spends little time slapping this stuff together on canvas, as if he is embarrassed by how little effort it takes to produce.

Lacey flexed on us with a couple of photorealistic paintings, but he earned his 15 minutes of fame by cranking out low brow dime store dreck entirely based on recycled ideas.

--

I know the raincrow ribbing is all in good nature, but I'd take that old bird over creepy naked pancake guy any day. And I think raincrow could get hisself onna new york times if'n he set his mind to it.

[CecilAveNeighbor]

I'm with Raincrow and Samarost. My first thought was, "who at the Times owes DL a favor?" Besides the unaffecting paintings and the thinly veiled disrespect for President Obama, the slapping something together in between E Bay auctions really offends my artistic sensibilities. I guess we all have to make ends meet somehow.

[gypsy]

raincrow vs. dan lacey is not really an either/or choice, however entertaining i found their contretemps. you're allowed to appreciate both, and i do.

in re: lacey, there's an element of explaining-the-joke in any attempt to explicate his appeal -- at least, his appeal to me, i can't speak for anyone else -- and while i hate to leave it at 'you either get it or you don't,' that's sort of how i feel about it. but maybe that's too judgmental. let's just say, it either gets you or it don't. (and also, i was a fan of the guy from back in faithmouse days -- which is seriously one of the weirdest comic strips ever, and well drawn too. so his latter emergence as pancake painter and obama-unicorn hawker i see in light of that, as entertaining later chapters in a singular career. i'm glad he's making some money, or at least i hope he is, because i like seeing artsy weirdos make a living. it makes me feel better about america.)

[Raincrow]

...I think raincrow could get hisself onna new york times if'n he set his mind to it.

This ...

... will have to make me happy for now.

[relentless1]

I think there's something to be said for being able to to "slap something together" artistically with very little time or thought involved. Then again, I have no artistic ability outside my own head. So I say congrats Lacy.

[samorost]

I think I fully understand his work. To the people quoted in the NYT article, Lacey is an outlet for handmade Obama merchandise. Others recognize the sloppy quality but enjoy his work in an "irony is the new sincerity" sense. Neither appeals to me, personally.

I'm not begrudging Dan Lacey for turning a profit, but the way people fawn over the paintings baffles me.