When I was a kid, I loved MAD MAGAZINE. I could barely wait each month for the next issue to be printed and distributed. I read each issue repeatedly. I remember the Dave Berg strips, the Spy Vs. Spy pages and the Mad "Fold Ins". I didn't really know it at the time, but the name of the person whose are I loved the most was artist Basil Wolverton. I really didn't know who he was or anything about him until the internet rolled around and made all information anywhere accessible to everyone, but I know he and MAD were great influences on me when I was younger. I never could get adults or even other kids my age to "understand" why the art was so good. Most people were of the "a child could do that" or "that's ugly" school of thought when I showed them the art I loved so much. I also didn't realize it at the time, but Wolverton art was a bit like Rat Fink, another art icon I worshiped as a child and teen. Art like Wolverton's can't be understood by intellectual elites or art school snobs, it can only be comprehended by those intuitive individuals capable of true art vision.


In the early ninety's, I attended the art school Arrowmont in Gatlinburg Tennessee and when I left to return home, I stopped  in a  convenience  store and discovered I had a flat tire. Having no jack and a fully loaded van, I called AAA to change the tire. Since I had to wait a while, I asked the clerk if I could "hang around" and I was given permission to read the magazines for sale while waiting. At the time I'd never seen a Tattoo magazine before (these days they are everywhere) and I spotted one titled "Tattoo Review #2". It peaked my interest and I opened it up and stumbled onto an artist I'd never heard of, Jeff Gaither. While looking at the art he created it was if I was having my stomach ripped out and then shoved back down my throat. It was only the second time I'd ever experienced a visceral reaction to art (the first was when seeing a certain painting in the Dali Museum in Florida). I was flabbergasted and I purchased the magazine. This was the first time and only time in my life I have been moved to write an artist, and when I wrote Gaither to tell him how much I liked his stuff, I ended up with two art works by him, which I still have today. Gaither is not for everyone. He calls his creations " Art For the Criminally Insane. He's not joking.  What I didn't put together at the time was how much Wolverton and Gaither seem alike, but Gaither is much more hard core. It's no wonder I freaked out when I first saw art by Gaither.