Those who know me, know I’ve been a psycho Barry McGee nerd/fan since the mid 90’s. (Just throw his name into the search here & see all the entries) Back then I was trading shit for his zines or buying his painted bottles from graffiti rats for $100.
When working on my first book in 2008, I wrote to him, asking if I could make one of the faces on a bottle I owned into a peel-out sticker for the back section of the book. He wrote back saying no, but then said he’d make something original for it. When the email arrived with the image of the painting, my jaw literally dropped.
He has occasionally used B’s or D’s for eyes in his faces but here was one with a D for one eye & a B for the other. Not only did I make the stickers with it, JK5 tattooed it beautifully.
Over the years & as my career in music & art developed, I’ve managed to scrape together enough funds to buy a couple of really significant works by him, which I get incredible pleasure from & sometimes can’t believe they are mine.
Knowing he was about to open a show in NY on Sat, I went to the gallery on Thur hoping to catch him & his crew installing it. Over the years I’ve met Barry a few times at book signings & gallery & museum openings but this was the first time I’ve got to spend an hour with him. We talked about future projects & I showed him the CRASH BANG book which he seemed to really love, asking all kinds of questions about the punk characters included & how I was really “in it”.
He has occasionally used B’s or D’s for eyes in his faces but here was one with a D for one eye & a B for the other. Not only did I make the stickers with it, JK5 tattooed it beautifully.
He also gave me new stickers to add to his panel in the Stuck-Up collection.
We discussed how we’re dealing with getting old & noticed a strange but cool numerical thing. He’s 58 & I was born in 58. I’m 66 & he was born in 66. Must mean something 🙃 Knowing he hates & is not on any social media, I don’t have to worry about being too much of a fanboy here.