spot-ti-fi the x-ray

by Art Chantry:

i was at a thrift store in a small town and found a really really wretched painting of a tropical beach scene shoved inside an old old frame with cracked glass. it looked like it was painted by a bored serviceman without hope of ever getting off an island (i fantasize that it’s ‘Guam’) and started to teach himself to paint with child’s watercolor set. i mean to say, it looks exactly THAT BAD. it’s an absolutely desperately bored sort of painting. childish and hurried and terrible.

—artchantry.com—

for no reason at all, i flipped the painting over and this is what i found! on the back of this really bad watercolor painting, there is a badly damaged photograph of what appears to be an x-ray of some sort of apparatus. somebody had attempted to rip off the image and it came apart in pieces because it was so securely glued down with rubber cement (thus the yellow staining you see. that’s what rubber cement does over time. it turns a putrid golden yellow/red rust color.)

the caption reads:

X-RAY OF LRI CERAMIC TUBE

INTERNAL STRUCTURE

the lettering in the caption is done with one of those standard lettering kits sold by K&E called a “LeRoy Lettering Kit.” i recognized the lettering style immediately because i am an ace No. 1 crack leroy lettering artist myself. i spent two whole years at a job where i did leroy lettering day in/day out.

so, it is within my scope of expertise to assert that this is not very good leroy lettering. in fact, it’s really really crummy craftsmanship. but, that’s what it is. i imagine it was also done by some incredibly bored serviceman (on Guam) who was told to make this sign/thing by his immediate superior in rank. so, he did what he was told – without the slightest interest of doing it well. he was following the path of least resistance. and this thing i

isn’t it beautiful?

ADDENDUM:

AC:there is a small local record label here in tacoma that is run by a bunch of young kids, basically. they put out vinyl lp’s with covers and the whole shebang. they sell them all out and do really well. so, how does it work in world where nobody even has turntables any more? the entire record and cover package is all basically a big elaborate package design. the real meat they sell is a download card stuffed inside the record jacket along with the vinyl disk. that’s what you use to download the music into your ipod for actual listening. nobody ever plays the vinyl record (heavens! you might ruin the collector value!). so, the LP survives today as a novelty package design for youngsters who think ‘retro’ is cool… DUTY NOW FOR THE FUTURE!!