Fans eager to check out Michael Ornstein’s art should plan on visiting San Francisco’s Beat Museum soon. Beginning this Saturday, October 27, six of Ornstein’s paintings will be unveiled as part of the festivities to honor Jack Kerouac’s On the Road original scroll, and celebrate the upcoming US release of the book’s film version directed by Walter Salles. We caught up with Ornstein to discuss his Kerouac tribute and what lies ahead in Sons’ season five.
The Beat Museum, located on 540 Broadway St., will be hosting an induction ceremony for Kerouac’s “Reinvented Scroll” this coming Saturday. The museum has been coordinating the event, titled “One Night On the Road,” in conjunction with the year-long OntheRoad4Kerouac project. That project was fueled by hundreds of participants from around the globe who paid homage to the draft Kerouac continuously wrote of his famous book throughout 1951 (the Original Scroll) by submitting testimonials of what Kerouac’s writing and On The Road has meant to them.
In addition to Ornstein, Beat luminaries are also expected at the event. Prior to the festivities, Ornstein discussed his interest in Kerouac and On the Road.
“I first discovered Jack Kerouac through On the Road when I was about 10 or 11 and it spoke to me in rhythm and imagery, as if I was listening to music. My family used to take a lot of road trips when I was a kid and I always loved those trips. What I was reading reflected what I already loved, so I connected with it and related to it in a very personal way. The freedom of it. This love for the road has been with me all my life. I’ve driven cross country 11 times; I’m always up for road travel.”
Ornstein’s love for the road goes deep, indeed, and it has been a part of his body of work for a long time. In 1996, he did a road film called “Time Away” but also wrote a story, Love Travel Blood: Epistles from the Road” (http://michaelornstein.com/Love-Travel-Blood-Vol-1). In addition, he’s also had the pleasure to get to know some key figures of the Beat movement, such as Herbert Huncke, Gregory Corso, and Alan Ginsberg.
A long time Keroauc fan, Ornstein lists Doctor Sax, Maggie Cassidy, and Mexico City Blues as his favorites.
“Alan was always around and Gregory used to hang out in the Corner Bistro. Gregory and I became friends over hamburgers, talked about paintings and painters. Herbert Huncke lived at the Chelsea Hotel down the hall from my friend Cyndi, and me and my friend Randy hung out with him when we went to visit her.”
The impact of their work remained with Ornstein: “Through the years, I read a lot of what they wrote and it spoke to me and enlightened me. They were not very different from me and my pals, and I related to them on that level, as kindred spirits. Reading what they wrote gave us license, somehow, to be who we genuinely were in the same way previous mountain climbers leave behind routes and steps for future climbers. That’s how I see it. I feel we’re traveling down the same road, only at different times. They looked to Whitman, Steinbeck and Faulkner, etc.; we looked to them. I feel knowing your history, in this way, is very important, especially if you’re an artist.”
For those unfamiliar with Ornstein’s art, he’s a highly regarded multi-disciplinary artist. For the “One Night On the Road” exhibit, he had a specific vision in mind.
“I’m joining text with image, telling a story through paintings. I’ve written six “dreams” from what I imagined to be from Jack Kerouac’s perspective while he was in NYC, and then I painted the dreams. These dreams are also from my perspective, so it’s a melding of his life and mine. At the show, the viewer can see the paintings and read the text that will be handwritten and posted next to each painting. In addition, the viewer can receive an audio version of the text that I recorded into their smartphones, via QR Codes.”
Based on other discussions with the actor, I was already familiar with how he enjoys mixing traditional mediums with technology. The Kerouac exhibit is no exception, and has the added touch of being performance oriented.
“I’ve been working this way with my paintings for a hell of a long time, joining text with images, and I feel the text aspect has never been more appropriate than here, in a museum dedicated to Jack Kerouac and his pals. What’s new here is that I wrote the text first, before even thinking about the paintings. The mode of art that I’m working with here is performance orientated. More like a film than an exhibition of paintings. If you can’t make it to San Francisco, experience the show online (http://michaelornstein.com/Beat-Museum-Show).”
As has happened with other projects from Sons cast members, my guess is the FX drama series’ avid following will stop at the Museum to check out Ornstein’s exhibit. He believes Kerouac’s work will resonate with the fans.
Ornstein imagines most of the characters in SOA would have read Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, particularly the First Nine.
“I think fans of Sons of Anarchy would really appreciate the connection of spirit between Kerouac and SOA. I think the motorcycle community has a great deal in common with what these guys were writing about and living through. I imagine that most of the characters in SOA would have read On the Road and related to it, especially the First Nine. Like I said, ‘Whether that’s going to be inside or outside the boundaries of what society tells you to be, live the way you want to live. At all costs.’ On two wheels or four.”
Speaking of Sons, I wondered if Ornstein’s character, Chucky, would dabble in any form of art on ocassion. “Chucky’s art is numbers,” Ornstein says. “I believe he is able to do complicated math in his head, the way a painter or musician works through music or images. Math is an art.”
Given that Chucky is a very popular character among the show’s fans, I inquired about what has been Ornstein’s most enjoyable aspect of playing Chucky this season.
“What is going on around him, the stakes are very high, the changes so visceral, and the way he reacts to all this … Let’s just say that his tics and anxieties reach new heights.”
My favorite episode so far this season is “Orca Shrugged,” in which Walton Goggins splendidly played transgender character Venus Van Dam. Ornstein also had some amazing, funny scenes, and what may have been going on in Chucky’s head begged to be asked.
“I guess what was going on in Chucky’s head was, ’What in the world do I do with what I’m processing?’”
Ornstein seemed to be as marveled as the audience was about Goggins’ physical transformation for the role. “Walton is a good friend of mine but I never perceived him or her as ’Walton’ for a second. The special effects were so amazing that I immediately believed what I was looking at, and what Walton did with that character from the moment he sat in the make-up chair was just so extraordinary, so badass, so committed and real, all I had to do was be there and “witness” this person named Venus Van Dam in that situation and take it from there. And, of course, I had the guys to deal with, too, which was equally fantastical. It was all solid bliss to me.”
Of course, I wanted to know more about the Sons of Anarchy storylines this season.
“The weather these characters are moving through is quite extreme. Every show is an epic experience. Every character on the show makes up the whole. Each one is deeply connected, and if something is going on with one person, it vibrates through everyone else and causes a ripple effect through the community that informs the next steps of action. There’s a whole lot going on with pretty much every character on the show, so there’s a great deal of action and forward movement to the storyline, which makes for a very exciting time. The higher the stakes, the deeper the roots, and these characters have wickedly deep roots. Events on the level these characters are living through, it’s a desperately difficult road to haul.”
For those folks eager to learn more about what to expect in the second half of the season, Ornstein describes it in three words: “Holy fucking shit.”
You read it first here, folks! I wouldn’t expect any less from a Kurt Sutter show, and for a while now, I’ve been getting the sense things are going to get really explosive in the end. Ornstein confirms my suspicions: “At the end of this season, people are going to want to put themselves into time machines and immediately travel through to next September. I’ll tell you that.”
The “One Night on the Road” festivities will begin at 7 pm on Saturday, October 27. More information about the event can be found at http://otr4kerouac.wix.com/anightoutontheroad, on Twitter @KerouacDotCom, @ontheroad4kerouac, and via Ornstein @swindeep.
On the Road stars Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley, Kristen Stewart, Kirsten Dunst, Viggo Mortense and Amy Adams. It’s expected to be released in the US in December 2012. For On the Road movie updates, follow @ontheroadfilm and @IFCFilms.
Photos © 2012 Michael Marisi Ornstein. All Rights Reserved.
elleL
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