The Magic Painter Backstory

by Art Fag City on November 10, 2009 · 6 comments Blurb + Reviews

POST BY PADDY JOHNSON
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Back in the New Year, artist Javier Morales highlighted a few of his favorite youtube videos, The Magic Painter (pictured above) amongst them. At the time, I enjoyed Morales’ pick for it’s strange aesthetic; the entire video looks like it was made courtesy of White Rose, a now defunct craft and nursery store in Canada. In revisiting the video over Twitter however, blogger Tom Moody points out a creepy backstory YouTube commenter Shawnantone brings to light. He sources the video to the Christian based religious cult “The Family” (aka The Children of God), the organization focusing on sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ around the world. This wouldn’t be particularly weird were it not for founder David Brandt Berg, who not only came to be known within the organization as “Dad,” but had numerous allegations of pedophilia and sexual abuse lodged against him. He was also a well known anti-Semite. Notably, David Brandt Berg himself stars in the above video, strangely choosing to sport a fake beard over his real one. It is especially disturbing to see children in this clip, given Brandt Berg’s background. In 2005, his adopted child Ricky Rodriguez took his own life after murdering one of his adult caretakers.

{ 6 comments }

tom moody November 11, 2009 at 5:28 pm

No one is commenting, so I compared the Magic Painter to Matthew Barney (who comes out rather the worse for it): http://www.tommoody.us/archives/2009/11/11/the-magic-painter-vs-matthew-barney/

tom moody November 11, 2009 at 1:28 pm

No one is commenting, so I compared the Magic Painter to Matthew Barney (who comes out rather the worse for it): http://www.tommoody.us/archives/2009/11/11/the-magic-painter-vs-matthew-barney/

Ben Coonley November 11, 2009 at 6:14 pm

This is brilliant and terrifying. Nice job Tom!

Ben Coonley November 11, 2009 at 2:14 pm

This is brilliant and terrifying. Nice job Tom!

tom moody November 12, 2009 at 5:03 pm

Thanks, Ben, and thanks to Paddy for the post. This “trivia” doesn’t get a lot of scrutiny relative to the video art stars’ work, but it’s all part of the same language.

tom moody November 12, 2009 at 9:03 pm

Thanks, Ben, and thanks to Paddy for the post. This “trivia” doesn’t get a lot of scrutiny relative to the video art stars’ work, but it’s all part of the same language.

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