by Andrew Kennedy

“’What do you miss most of Old Earth's oceans?' I asked [the dolphins]... The translator disk had twisted around over [my] shoulder. I reached to shut it off but paused as the answer to my question buzzed urgently in [my] ears.

𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘬/𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘬/ 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘬/ 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘬/ 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘬/ 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘬/ 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘬."

Maui-Covenant's original human settlers lived on a beautiful ocean world whose most notable features were the motile isles which migrate to the equator every summer. The isles were herded by dolphins saved from extinction during oldEarths final years. The Consul tells the story of how the planet was brought into the Hegemony unwillingly, as the inhabitants feared the environmental and social degradation that would be unleashed if there were an influx of tourists and oil prospectors. The Consul's grandmother, Siri was a leader of the protestors. The first attempt at installing a Farcasterportal was sabotaged, and a rebellion started which concluded in the Archipelago Wars, won by the FORCE. The war devastated most of the motile isles and the sealife of the world, which was followed by the mysterious mass sea SUICIDE. After joining the Hegemony, Maui-Covenant became an attractive planet for tourists from all over the Web.

Trockel declared in 1988, “The monkey interests me as an imitator of human beings, … as an imitator full stop.”⁴

Quote “I thoroughly believe in evolution, and how we evolve and how our physical being is affected by time and use and by the environment…its more than just challenging, it can be terrifying. We all struggle, but I think its important to be there for one another.”

-Elliot Gould

“Some doorframes are like ramparts, and behind hides another category mistake. Still, the mollusk is a being not a quality, though he makes me think of colours inside paint tubes. In his case, nature gave up any pretension to good form as it did with plasma. It only claims that the interior, the sheltered, cannot be completely worthless. A hinge, a hatch, a latch to his door, the mollusk is but a muscle to keep it shut. He is a door handle that has secreted its own door. Two concave doors make his whole dwelling — his only dwelling, first and last: he lives there to his death – impossible to pry him out! The same with people: every living cell in their body holds on to what they have to say, and the words reciprocate. But if what is left behind happens to be well crafted, another may inhabit their tomb, just like a hermit crab.“

If all has gone to plan - On the occasion of John’s studio visit we’ll be looking at new paintings. Many of which will have changed since I’ve seen them last. A Goblinoid dragon, also known as a kobold, with shackles of anti-teleportation on their legs was splashed with demon blood. the demon blood caused their eyes to transform into stalks. Somewhere in the picture or inside this city, (pause) a city which has been dragged down to hell by chains, the goddess of the harvest Chauntea is rendered, or presenting as a spectral drawing.

John’s recent accumulation of pest control fliers, stump grinding, junk superheroes, and “don’t walk on the lawn” ads with their useless warnings, blocked, may have ended up in a larger field of green paint. One side mascots, the other, their enemies, the pests. Maybe Christi Whitman, a not so “Princess Dianna Look-a-like will emerge using the “powers” she’s been assigned due to her sorta resemblance to said Princess.

Maybe we’ll also be looking at some recent paintings of John himself, his newish oldish Jersey self, at his sister’s college graduation, or on top of an inflatable slide, snapshots from family life.

There’s A painting of a square in Solvang where an old tale has entered contemporary life in the form of a statue, with comical timing or ironic placement. John’s husband is in the corner.

There is a maximalist fascination with animals, personal anecdotes, pre-Christian Europe, pop, and niche fantasy that all gets filtered through John’s prism. This action which starts somewhere close to the personal, leaves us with an underlying feeling of new possibilities. There’s always room for connections in collage. time space and memory can all jump around effortlessly. But there’s ALSO a lot of force, in putting this, next to that. Maybe with John, the word Montage makes more sense? celebrities moving in and around the frame. but I’m not sure yet, as this is mostly all new to me.  I think one can see in the works, the attachment, the fascination, and a complex repulsion to these images or subjects all at once. Quote un Quote “Authorship” arrives, in the specificity of referents, but still when glancing around there’s a feeling of “all-interrelatedness” in this realm.  Watch John think!  John’s stories are your stories too… Are we imitators full stop?

Can overwhelming feelings of joy and pain, while being experienced, really be analyzed? Would doing so disrupt its seductive and mysterious qualities? Not sure.

Whats it like to paint the cast of the power rangers, or the crocodile hunter, who’s life ended tragically after being pierced in the chest by a short-tail-stingray barb?  Does it refer to John, how he feels? I think so? At some point did the line of communication between the crocodile hunter and sting ray collapse? Was it ever even there to begin with? What is this communication? Can I talk to Christi Whitman?

what do you miss most?

miss shark / miss shark / miss shark