I have been so busy here in the studio this last year that the piece had spent most of its time propped up in the corner waiting to be finished. The piece in question was to be a tribute to the late Sir Jimmy Savile who died in October 2011 aged 85. He was an iconic television personality to the British public, to millions he was a man that made things happen with his show Jim’ll Fix It and he raised £40 million for charity in his lifetime. The British public held Sir Jimmy in high regard and I had hoped to capture this in this piece. But in light of a recent documentary revealing some rather upsetting reports of his past I have had to abandon the project. Although I question the programme’s motives for making these ‘allegations’ after the man’s death, to anyone that viewed it- it seems pretty conclusive. Either way, you can not sway public opinion the piece and the mood I had hoped to capture with it no longer works. I was going to simply destroy it and move on but I thought I would mention it on here first because it provides an interesting lesson when working with ‘current’ subject matters in that opinions and ‘truths’ can change before the paint is allowed to dry.
© Arfon Jones 2012 All images are copyrighted throughout the world.
Got to be honest - never liked the man even before it was revealed what he had been up to. Totally talentless and deserving only of contempt. Maybe you could salvage it by painting some more deserving celebrity's face over it, but you'll have to choose carefully. Despite the robes, you've painted here, Savile was certainly no saint.
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DeleteI just gave up on it, having made the project 'public' quashed any chances of it being reused in some way (although I have kept the original sketch, just in case someone wants a drawing of a demon some day...) I started painting this within a few days of his death and as I worked on it I watched various Youtube videos featuring him and read some of the comments... they were right!