BE POLITE.

BE POLITE. Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol did a pretty popular series of collaborations in the 80’s. It was anticipated to be one of the greatest bodies of work in history. It’s said that Warhol would paint something and Basquiat would paint over it and sometimes urinated on it. I guess they thought irreverent was genius. Isn’t that what we love about great art. In the end, the critics hated their collaboration. They pounded it into the ground. The art community turned its back on it. Leaving us asking the question, “is there a dark side to collaboration?” We tried that same experiment at Creature. We put up a canvas and started taking turns - putting paint on canvas. We had one rule, “respect what was put before you or don’t respect it at all - There is no middle ground.” The original image was a well crafted, irreverent painting of a smiley face in the shape of a middle finger. It wasn’t too long before people began to add random phrases and awkward obscenities. How can this be? We collaborate day to day to make amazing pieces for our clients. How can we have failed so much with this collaboration. We gathered around to figure out why and we drew only one conclusion. We weren’t polite. We chose disrespect.

Be Polite

A Social Experiment gone wrong or very right.

Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol did a prettypopular series of collaborations in the 80’s. It wasanticipated to be one of the greatest bodies of work inhistory. It’s said that Warhol would paint something andBasquiat would paint over it and sometimes urinated on it.I guess they thought irreverent was genius. Isn’t that whatwe love about great art.

In the end, the critics hated their collaboration. Theypounded it into the ground. The art community turned itsback on it. Leaving us asking the question, “is there a darkside to collaboration?”
We tried that same experiment at Creature. We put up acanvas and started taking turns - putting paint on canvas.We had one rule, “respect what was put before you or don’trespect it at all - There is no middle ground.”

This is an Experiment I tested out with a few colleagues I was working with in Seattle:

Step 1: The original image was a well crafted, irreverent paintingof a smiley face in the shape of a middle finger.

This is the result.