Scene intern Matt Fox contributed this report.
“I would like to introduce you to the other world.”
That's one of the opening lines from the 2005 documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston. The “other world” is a fair descriptor of Johnston's unconventional and at times surreal approach to art, whether musical or visual. Johnston is a West Virginia singer-songwriter who rose to prominence in the 1980s. He was diagnosed with manic depression and schizophrenia, a twofold complication that later landed him in multiple mental wards and the custody of his parents.
Through these conditions, he continued writing music and creating art, influencing everyone from Kurt Cobain to Thurston Moore. His art may appear inaccessible at first, but it has a way of sticking with the viewer, ultimately showing its true form long after the initial intake.
If I said the drive to Lipscomb’s Hutcheson Gallery this past Friday didn’t consist of using the steering wheel as a makeshift drum for straight-eighths and belting out “I Live for Love” at the top of my lungs, I would be lying. Ever since I saw the documentary some six years ago, I've been following Johnston, his music and his visual art. When I caught wind of his work on display at Lipscomb, along with a subsequent symposium, I'm not sure my own wedding would've kept me away.
