Wayne White (1957) is an American artist born and raised in Hixton, Tennessee, located an hour North of Chattanooga. White grew up on a small ranch in the country, raised by his mother, Billie June, while his father, Willis White, worked as a pipe fitter in the factory. In White’s book, Maybe Now I’ll Get the Respect I So Richly Deserve, he describes his upbringing as being “very blue collar” and credits the example set by his father for his “puritan” work ethic. At age 3, Wayne White started drawing regularly. He tells of how his parents were supportive of his creativity from the beginning of his experimentation. White’s parents were purchasing a new drawing pad weekly, because he would go through them so quickly. The drawing pads ended …show more content…
With what popularity White had gained from working on the show, he was able to continue designing sets for a few forthcoming years. White designed the set for Peter Gabriel’s music video, “Big Time” and also “Tonight, Tonight” by the Smashing Pumpkins. As his success started to fade, White turned to creating art solely for himself. White found a new interest in oil painting and began to work on what has come to be known as his “word paintings”. “Why can’t you just come right out and say stuff in art and leave the depth to be determined later?” White asks in an interview with Todd Oldham. According to White, being an American is mainly about “straightforwardness” and he felt that incorporating text into his work would be a comical way to get his concept of expressing the humor in “living the American dream” across. White worked with this concept for a few years before his work began to become recognized. White started to receive some harsh criticisms from the fine art world with these new works. “People didn’t know what to think. They just started laughing” said art critic, David Page in White’s documentary, Beauty is Embarrassing. Some critics even saw White’s work as a copy of Edward