The Ronnie Wood School of Aesthetics

I think I’ve finally done it. I’m at peace at last.
Don’t get me wrong, I still have the occasional hiccup and get all pretentious sometimes; spin off on an arty-farty head trip and explore the minutiae of my own colon – but hey, who doesn’t?

Yes, I’ll say it out loud, after 30 years of playing the guitar and making art (very off and on), I’ve come to the undeniable conclusion… that I belong to the Ronnie Wood School of aesthetics.

Of course I have moments of brilliance, where I get lucky and toss off a gem, but most of the time my creative ejaculations in the spheres of musicianship and painting, have been rather awkward, limited and often formulaic.

More talented, less sensitive souls might even say I’m a bit shit. I prefer the terms ‘fast and loose’, ‘passionate’, ‘free spirited’, and of course, my favourite, ‘organic’.

I’m not entirely sure what the latter phrase actually means to be honest, but along with all the other descriptions of my ‘abilities’, it serves to bifurcate the linearity of the hegemonic dominance of this thing called ‘talent’ within our culture.
(If in doubt, obfuscate.)

I like to open up the artistic ground for everyone - my watchwords are: ‘permeable’ and ‘accessible!’
I eschew the DIY/NIKE Punk aesthetic at every turn, don’t THINK about it, ‘just DO it! Get yourself a slogan and stick to it like glue.
Quite.

Christ, its not like I haven’t tried!
You’re reading someone who learned the 32 chords to Pinball Wizard (and forgot them again two weeks later), who studied the Clash songbook like a Vatican scholar deconstructing the Bible (and made ‘I fought the law’ sound like Simply Red).

I have tried to paint like Rembrandt, to capture the demonic chiaroscuro of Caravaggio, but it all came out a bit A-level and tragic in its naivety (not cool ‘naive’, just sad naive.)

But the point is of course, I had a lot of fun exploring the more academic/technical frontiers of these two art forms.
I had to have some kind of grounding in the prescribed formulas for proficiency, so I could find my own path and ultimately reject the sterile conventions of that cheap painted strumpet called ‘genius’, and find success through my failure.

I now proudly embrace the shambolic, the spontaneous, the chaotic - the bum notes of my musical and painterly ‘happenings’.
I am an art brut and a guitar brut, and will never surrender to the spirit of Segovia (or Prog Rock.)

I have learned a lot from Ronnie: its okay not being that proficient or innovative in your guitar playing and artwork – it’s the ‘passion’ and ‘free-spiritedness’ that count at the end of the day…the organic.
Ron seems happy enough anyway.

Mind you he is in the Rolling Stones.