UCLA Journal of Radiation Oncology Issue 4 - Flipbook - Page 19
UCLA RADIATION ONCOLOGY JOURNAL
We are talking about Jean-Michel Basquiat,
the French-Haitian Neo-Expressionist who
electrified the New York art scene in the early1980s. And while White’s “graffiti cave paintings”
seem similar at first blush, and while he has
been called “the new Basquiat,” White wasn’t
aware of Basquiat’s work until he was in his 20s
and his mentor, the Maryland scenic painter
Patrick Henry, pointed out the similarity by
introducing White to his work. While White
could recognize Basquiat’s seemingly cool
lifestyle and appreciate the Black culture issues
Basquiat painted within, White has never seen
his race or gender as important to his identity or
art (for example, White did not create a single
painting about Black Lives Matter). Like many
of White’s generation, he has turned his back
on labels and norms, on politics, and the way
he paints reflects the Neo-Utopian hope his
generation holds for social and polyamorous
acceptance on a universal scale. Plus, White was
more interested in skateboarding than art until
he was in his late-20s.
Born in Salisbury, Maryland, in 1988, his Polish
mother was a social worker while his Black father
was a Frito Lay driver/stocker. His siblings and he
were athletes, and White took to skateboarding at
a young age. A high school teacher enrolled him
in the Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) High
School Program where his sense of visual play
and experimentation was fostered and enhanced.
College wasn’t a viable option beyond two years
of community college; the expense seemed absurd
and selfish. Instead, he picked up tips from every
artist he met. By his mid-20s, his most relevant
artistic influence had become Ralph Steadman,
the gonzo artist widely known for his works
in and on the covers of Hunter S. Thompson's
books. White loves the looseness of Steadman’s
work, but most enthralling is to be able to visually
read the meaning or story behind each piece of
Steadman’s documented moments and journeys.
The influence is evident, and White's travails
through his 20s are a bit gonzo. While living in
Florida, he traveled to New York City’s Museum
19
of Modern Art, his first time in a museum. He
was influenced by the work of Jackson Pollock
and TAFA, by Ed Templeton’s Toy Machine
and other skateboard artists. He moved to San
Francisco to work in the marijuana industry
while continuing to make art, but was arrested
while visiting family in Maryland; marijuana
wasn’t yet legal in Maryland and he was carrying.
But this, like a novel’s plot twist, was how White’s
life began to revolve solely around his art.
While White was serving jail time for the
aforementioned arrest, his mother happened to
attend an art exhibition. She showed the curator
images of his work that she had on her phone.
The curator encouraged White’s mother to have
him submit work for a juried exhibition, which
he won. The prize was a solo exhibition, his first.
By this time, he was on probation and required to
work full time, but no one would hire him unless
he cut his dreadlocks. His father suggested that
he focus on selling more of his paintings, that
making art could be his full-time job as long as he
was reporting all of his earnings to the IRS.
Finding Venice, California, in his late-20s is what
solidified White as a working artist. After a stint
of couch surfing, he began to make a decent
living painting. Finding Venice was finding his
muse, finding the epiphany moment. For White,
everything is part of his art: his skateboarding,
friends and strangers, the modeling he does when
he needs to step away from painting for a bit to
recharge, and visiting his seven-year-old son in
Maryland, dreaming of the day when his son is
old enough to spend an extended period with
White in Venice, learning to skateboard and to
love the eclectic.
Each element of White’s life comes into focus
when he paints. As yet, he does not have gallery
representation, so he relies on his 19K Instagram
following as well as nearly-daily networking
in person in Venice and Los Angeles. The
networking has become another element in
his art; it is common to see revelry in his work,
painted both as a fun activity and as a dark
excessive pastime a character may wish to exit.
