By The Gorgon

It is June 4, 1976 and the newly formed band The Sex Pistols stand on the stage of Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall for the first time.  There were 42 people in attendance.  History is about to be made.  Johnny Rotten can’t sing and the rest of the band only knows 4 chords, yet the audience is absorbing the raw energy the band is emitting and will be inspired to do great things of their own.  In attendance were the future members of the Buzzcocks, and journalist Tony Williams who was later inspired to start Factory Records.  Other notable attendees are, Ian Curtis, Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner who form Joy Division that very evening and later New Order after Curtis committed suicide in 1980.  Tony Williams signs New Order to Factory Records and they release the 12” single “Blue Monday,” in 1983 and was massively successful.  New Order and Tony Williams invests the money in their night club The Hacienda, which will spawn other great Manchester bands such as:  The Smiths, The Happy Mondays, and The Stone Roses, and Oasis to name a few.  The Hacienda becomes the epicenter of the “Manchester Scene” and will forever change the history of music. 

What does the history of Punk music and its aftershock have anything to do with Lowbrow art?  Besides the fact that Punk is the music the Lowbrow artists grew up with and was inspired by, it’s the tiny little connections in the superficially mundane history that connects the artists together and eventually defines a music scene or an art movement. 

For the record, Miles doesn’t like punk –he told me so.  But he is about to make seemingly mundane connections that launch his painting career.  In 1993, after 3 years at Cal Arts honing his animation skill, Miles received a lucrative job offer from Hanna-Barbera to work on the cartoon, “Two Stupid Dogs.”  His Cal Arts classmate and friendly competitor Craig McCraken is the Art Director of the show.  After 2 seasons of Two Stupid Dogs, Hanna-Barbera decided to cancel it and move on to a half-hour show that features three 7-minute cartoons every week called, “What-a-Cartoon.”  The show is not as avant-guarde as MTV’s Liquid Television, but the success of Spike  & Mike’s format is spreading to the masses.  Craig McCraken hired a young freelancer who just finished a project with John Kricfalusi’s music video, “I Miss You” for Bjork.  Enter Tim Biskup.  The question was who was going to use this freelancer background artist at the Hanna-Barbera?  Enter Miles Thompson. 

Miles and Tim became fast friends and ended up directing each other’s cartoon shorts for the show.  Miles’ short, “Boid and Woim,” aired on January 1, 1996 and around the same time Tim Biskup was starting his Burning Brush Auctions.  Tim invited Miles to participate in his art auction experiment in 1998.  Miles fondly remembers Tim’s dedication and drive, “He told me Turner Design gouache is the brand.  You have to use Kolinsky brushes.  He might have even driven me to the store to buy those supplies?”  Miles sums up Tim’s character in one word, “Fearless!”

Click to watch “Boid & Woim”

During their time off work and spare time, they would draw each other and trade paintings as practice for the auction.  Both artists highly inspired by jazz and the album art of Jim Flora, they decided to paint their respective jazz idols and swap paintings.  Tim painted Miles famed Parisian Sing legend Django Reinhardt, and Miles painted Tim a blues guitarist whose name escapes his memory at the moment.  Miles has received literally hundreds of offers for his Tim Biskup painting, but he clearly states, “I’m not selling that.  My daughter is going to inherit it.”  One common threat I’ve noticed in interviewing painters is that they themselves are avid collectors.

Jim Flora’s record cover design for Benny Goodman.

Miles Thompson’s painting proudly hangs in Tim Biskup’s home.

Detail of Miles Thompson painting

When asked if he ever thought of painting prior Burning Brush Miles replies, “I knew I could do [background painting].  I knew with some practice I could set my self apart.  After contemplating for a couple of seconds his friends influence is clear to Miles, “I do thank Tim [for] he was the spanking [I needed].”  Miles has some paintings completed, but wasn’t sure if they should make it to the auction. Despite his hesitation he listened to his friend Tim and took them to the Bigfoot Bar in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles.  “Everything sold for a couple of hundred dollars each.  I made $800 that first night,” as he summarizes his first foray into the fine art world.  “And it’s been that way ever since.  If I share it, then I can sell it.” 

Around 1999, gaining confidence from several Burning Brush events and with the advice and help from his good friend Tim Biskup, Miles decided to sell a painting on this burgeoning new website called eBay.  Miles recalls series of fast events, which launched his painting career, “Tim is a master of marketing.  He did the description and everything…and he loaded it with keywords.  He even hooked himself in the description and Burning Brush, so that whomever was there would find it on eBay.”  The person who purchased the painting on eBay holds the largest collection of Miles’ paintings to date, and is Tiki Central member who goes by the handle, SirGin.  Tim even went as far as fulfilling the deal by shipping it to SirGin.  Shortly after someone from Redondo Beach contacted Miles for his first solo show at the Dion Gallery.

Miles is about to transition from TV animation into the fine art world with his first solo show titled, “Island Images,” in 2000 at the Dion Gallery –which is historic.  However, we must go back to 1994-5 when Miles was merely 21 and was about to enter his first bar before concluding the story of his, “Island Images,” show.  Miles’ roommate in Valenica and co-worker at Hanna-Barbera, Greg Miller, decided to introduce him to a cool bar in L.A. called Tiki-Ti.  Prior that night he never had an alcoholic beverage nor stepped into a bar.  Behind the bar was a Filipino migrant and the proprietor of the bar, Ray Buhen.  The late Ray Buhen has been credited to invent several well-known tiki drinks and was one of the original bar tenders at Don the Beachcomber.  Miles entered the tiny bar and was amazed by the wall-to-wall clutter of tiki ephemera.  He sat at the bar and was severed his first alcoholic beverage (Chi Chi) by the late Ray Buhen.  Miles’ “night of the tiki” experience with his roommate Greg Miller caused him to frequent the bar and eventually became a Tiki-Ti regular.

Ray Buhen’s grandson, Mike Jr., now mans the bar with his Dad, Mike Sr. and younger Brother.

As the Island Image show is about to wrap-up at the Dion Gallery, Miles decided to drop of some promotional post cards for his show at the Tiki-Ti.  Days later he received a call from a Mr. Piet Agle who saw his promotional post cards at Tiki-Ti.  Piet Agle is the brother and manager of Josh Agle (Shag), a Lowbrow artist who at the time was gaining extreme popularity and sky rocketing painting prices.  Piet Agle informed Miles that Shag couldn’t attend the opening night of his show, but would like to have a private preview.  The 3 met at the Dion Gallery with all 32 painting still on the floor.  “Shag pulled out his checkbook and wrote a $3,000 check to the gallery,” as he recalls the seemingly surreal events, “What the FUCK just happened!”  Shag purchased 2 pieces (one small and one big), the titles escaped Miles’ memory, but he does remember a trio of tikis being one of them and a landscape was another. 

“Tiki Trio Verde” by Miles Thompson

24” x 24”

Gauche on board

Shortly after, a series of galleries began offering Miles solo shows.  Everything seemed to be falling into place, but then unfortunate life events take place and the effects of which can be seen in his new painting style.

Related articles:

Miles Thompson - Warm Fuzzies & Cold Pricklies show

Tim Biskup Part 3 - Burning Brushes & Great Art Machine

Miles Part 1 - The Well Examined Life of Miles Thompson

Miles Part 2 - For Every Thoreau there is an Emerson

Miles Part 3 - God in Disguise

Miles Part 4 - Edward Scissorhands in Awesometown

Miles Part 6 - Paradise Lost