Marilyn Manson, Tool's Adam Jones and More Create Artwork for Alternative Press Anniversary

Posted on Jul 7th 2010 4:00PM by Steve Baltin
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As part of Alternative Press magazine's 25th anniversary festivities, the publication is putting on an art show featuring works from Tool's Adam Jones, Marilyn Manson, Shirley Manson, Pete Wentz, Rancid's Tim Armstrong and many more. The exhibit opens at Los Angeles' Merry Karnowsky Gallery on Saturday, July 10, and there are plans to do a show in New York later this year.

"We came up with a list of all the musicians that we knew did visual art. We compiled this from a special that we do yearly in the magazine called Art Brutes," Alternative Press publisher Norman Wonderly tells Spinner. "Since the opening is based on the magazine's history, we wanted a mix of both past and present artists featured over the years. We also wanted to include visual artists that have a background in working with musicians."

From John Lennon and the Rolling Stones' Ron Wood to John Mellencamp and Iggy Pop, there is a long line of musicians who express themselves in the visual arts. Tool's Adam Jones -- who contributed a bronzed sculpture he originally did for the album cover for Peach, a band featuring Tool bassist Justin Chancellor -- tells Spinner the two mediums are equally important to him. "If you're going to have to categorize music and art, I have to have both those things in my life," he says. "I would kill myself if I didn't have one without the other."

So why do the two go together so well? "It's just how people see the world and its perspective," Jones says. "A lot of musicians, they're a little bit savant and it's not just, 'Hey, I wanted to be a rock star.' It's about a fire burning inside them and how do you increase the fire? You find different kinds of gasoline and kerosene and alcohol and acetones and dynamites, gun powder, whatever it takes, and that's the analogy. It's a different kind of influence to spread yourself out and express yourself and release this thing in your heart."

The success of musicians as visual artists backs him up, but a lot of people like to limit artists to one medium, which he finds exasperating. "Publications don't get that," he says. "They go, 'What bands are you influenced by with your music?' You go, 'OK, I can list a hundred bands, go different directions with that, but I'm also very passionate about painting and spoken-word stuff and novels and comics books and even video games that have a very strong narrative.' I just think we're in such a spoon-fed headline news world where people don't care about that."

One of the people contributing to the show as well is renowned artist Shepard Fairey, himself a diehard music fan. He hopes that this show causes artists take more from their musical brethren. "The cool thing about a lot of music is a lot of people enjoy themselves making and listening to music. It's a reminder art can work that way too," Fairey tells Spinner. "That's what I'm really hoping comes out of the show."

For more info on the show, visit the Merry Karnowsky Gallery's website.