In my previous post, I showed the original Last Week Tonight based artwork I'd made, inspired by John Oliver's apparent penchant for weird art, and by the long-running thirst gag for Adam Driver. It features a viola-playing John riding side saddle on the back of an Adam Driver Centaur through a romantic golden birch forest. Go check it out, if you like. It's called Driving Adam Driver.
The joke had run its course already on the show, so I was never truly deceiving myself into thinking I had a chance at a feature. Would have lost my mind a little if that had happened, but timing was not on the side of traditional art.
Especially since the episode which aired right after I finished my painting was their episode on AI art, featuring the generated images of PostPoopZoomies, and his partner Margaret of John Oliver romancing a cabbage. It was a great episode. Very very funny, great material, and I could only be a little jealous of the mention.
I waited a while, having recently mailed off an envelope of stickers to the office listed as John's American representation agency I'd found through my partner's IMDb pro account. I waited several months, made a video of me taking that first painting to the park for a date. Waited longer.
Then I thought, you know what? Art is a system of response, so let's respond. So I made this piece. It's the sex scene from The Shape of Water, but instead of our two heroes in that film, I have a spicy moment about to unfold between the leaves of John's Cabbage. I don't think I followed up with more stickers, but I did collect more than a few Cabbage Patch baby dolls. I haven't had a chance to redecorate them to look like John's bastard children yet, but I'm close. Just a couple more outstanding commissions to finish before I can finally focus on my own projects again. Hopefully you can guess where I'm going with that.
And then, last year at some point, I get a message from PostPoopZoomies on Instagram asking if I have prints available of this piece. He'd been collecting art made inspired by his, and his partner's work featured in the AI Art episode. I have no idea how many people have made their own inspired artworks, but I like to imagine his entire office is wallpapered with other artists' interpretations of their ideas. Pretty cool.
So yeah, I may never get the acknowledgment I crave with a pathetic desperation, but I did get to connect briefly with someone else about it, which is a solid bite of novel human experience.
Here's to whatever comes next. I still have tons to catch up on and share.
~Rachel
Rachelsvparry @ gmail.com