“My role in society, or any artist’s or poet’s role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.”—John Lennon.

Lennon was one of the greatest rock musicians of all time, and one of the great artists… He is someone who has appeared in my work for over a decade, and I’ve always felt that he was an amazing model of an artist. It’s incredible to me that the Beatles all somehow found each other and became the spokesmen for a generation, on the masthead of a culture, and helping the culture to under-stand where it was and how to try to cope through incredibly difficult times—through peace, love, and understanding… The Beatles were the Michelangelo’s of rock music, and Lennon was their leader…

There is so much I could say about the Beatles (they were also one of the first postmodern bands, in that they stepped into the Sgt. Pepper roles and spoke through other styles and characters to make their work more allegorical), but I love Lennon the most. He was the first post-postmodern artist, too, in that he felt he should speak earnestly about his own real experience, post-Beatles, to get his point across…

He defied notions of patriarchy, by insisting on interracial marriage to Yoko, by keeping her with him in “all-guy” situations, by becoming the first househusband, and by being simply the first big sensitive white guy with intellectual and political interests…

I think in his solo work he really became a “fine artist” in his experimentation in music and participation with Yoko and his famous performance pieces, the bed-in and bags and more… And obviously, in our current times, his messages for peace and how to “Imagine” have become even more important than ever…

The photo I had appropriated this from was taken from the “Lost Weekend” phase of his career, when he had separated from Yoko, and was rabble-rousing in LA, figuring out who he was as a man and as an artist so he could proceed into the future successfully, and I hope that I captured this pensive time in the portrait, as well as his greatness.