BS: ARTIST who chopped the tree in the back

Subject: BS: ARTIST who chopped the tree in the back
From: robomatic
Date: 03 Jun 10 - 12:28 AM

This is actually song related, but I got myself in a pickle at work by reciting a story i can't source, and searching for it on Google has not panned out:

When i was a volunteer DJ I heard an album of alternative music where one of the songs was about a real artist, either realist or surrealist is hard to say:

The artist was at home with his son. The son was doing a painting of the back yard. The artist asked him why he (the boy) had left out the tree in the back yard. The boy looked at his drawing and said "hey, I DID leave a tree out of the drawing."

Whereupon the artist went out in the back yard with an axe and chopped down the tree.

This is supposed to be a true story but I can't locate it. Any ideas?

Subject: RE: BS: ARTIST who chopped the tree in the back
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 03 Jun 10 - 04:30 AM

Ooh, what a creepy way to mess with a kids head.

Subject: RE: BS: ARTIST who chopped the tree in the back
From: frogprince
Date: 03 Jun 10 - 11:00 AM

Weird. How would you interpret something like that? Was the father so obsessed with strict realism in painting that he felt the need to teach his son what he considered to be an important lesson? Or was he just so mentally incoherrant that there is no way to guess what he was thinking?

Subject: RE: BS: ARTIST who chopped the tree in the back
From: mousethief
Date: 03 Jun 10 - 11:02 AM

Hey, I did leave out a family of refugees from my painting....

I hope this isn't true.

Subject: RE: BS: ARTIST who chopped the tree in the back
From: robomatic
Date: 03 Jun 10 - 03:53 PM

This is something that fascinates me because it is supposed to be true and as you say, is unusual to say the least. Anyone with a background in art of the last hundred years?
It happened no earlier than the late nineteenth century, and I'm pretty sure it was European, French, German, Belgian, one of those countries.

Subject: RE: BS: ARTIST who chopped the tree in the back
From: gnu
Date: 03 Jun 10 - 04:10 PM

Life imitating art?

Subject: RE: BS: ARTIST who chopped the tree in the back
From: robomatic
Date: 03 Jun 10 - 10:28 PM

Precisely. I'm wracking my brains. I'm almost ready to go through my alternative cd collection of about 400 disks and review all the lists. This has gotta jog someone's memory. Who was that artist. He's well known but not a 'name'.

Subject: RE: BS: ARTIST who chopped the tree in the back
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 04 Jun 10 - 01:59 AM

This is a song you're asking about, right?

So shouldn't this thread be in the music section?

Subject: RE: BS: ARTIST who chopped the tree in the back
From: Amergin
Date: 04 Jun 10 - 02:25 AM

There's a story behind the song....You know, I have heard the story, too...but I can't remember where....been trying to find it...but have been unsuccessful...

Subject: RE: BS: ARTIST who chopped the tree in the back
From: robomatic
Date: 06 Jun 10 - 12:48 PM

Well, there IS a song, but it's alternative, not folk, and maybe this should be above the line, except that I thought the odds were against finding the song even more than the story. I've got about 200 CDs to go through and the name of the band might not trigger my memory.

Subject: RE: BS: ARTIST who chopped the tree in the back
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Jun 10 - 03:29 PM

Rather than chop down the tree, the artist could have just asked the tree "to leave"!

Leaving,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: ARTIST who chopped the tree in the back
From: robomatic
Date: 06 Jun 10 - 07:05 PM

Okay, I'm going home and looking for that album. Tomorrow I'm going to call the Fine Arts Museum we have in town and see if there's someone can help me out. I'll call back to Boston if I have to, SOMEONE's going to have this data in their memory banks!

Subject: RE: BS: ARTIST who chopped the tree in the back
From: robomatic
Date: 07 Jun 10 - 08:26 PM

Didn't find it last night.

Subject: RE: BS: ARTIST who chopped the tree in the back
From: robomatic
Date: 08 Jun 10 - 04:02 PM

Went through about eighty CDs and rapidly lost enthusiasm for the enterprise. I can't recall the alternative group or the name of the song, and since my alternative collection is a portion of the CDs i was listening to for the radio station i was volunteering in, I may not actually have it.

I've called two art museums and I'm going on line looking for forums where people talk about art.

sooner or later it will crop up.