Jonathan Canady - Some Text

Favorite books of mine linked to Goodreads. May, 2025 additions indicated with * ART Vienna Actionism by Eva Badura-Triska (Editor), Kerstin Barnick-braun, Herbert Klocker (Editor) Installation Art by Claire Bishop Everything Seemed Possible: Art in the 1970s by Richard Cork Poor Artists: A Quest Into the Art World by Gabrielle de la Puente and Zarina Muhammad* Oui: The Paranoid-Critical Revolution: Writings 1927–1933 by Salvador Dalí , Robert Descharnes (Editor) Ralph Eugene Meatyard by Guy Davenport Bruce Nauman - Raw Materials by Emma Dexter Marcel Duchamp by Anne d'Harnoncourt (Editor) The Century of Artists' Books by Johanna Drucker Frank Auerbach by William Feaver* Alina Szapocznikow: Sculpture Undone, 1955-1972 by Elena Filipovic (Contributor), Joanna Mytkowska (Editor) Francis Bacon by Matthew Gale (Editor), Chris Stephens (Editor) The Story of Art by E.H. Gombrich Ecce Homo by George Grosz The Story of Art Without Men by Katy Hessel* A.Y...

Photo by Silas My friend, and fellow experimental musician, Danny Costa passed away in April of 2024. He was 39 years old. In August I was part of a special concert in his memory. My performance used the following poem... Soldier Rest by Sir Walter Scott Soldier, rest! thy warfare o’er, Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking; Dream of battled fields no more, Days of danger, nights of waking. In our isle’s enchanted hall, Hands unseen thy couch are strewing, Fairy strains of music fall, Every sense in slumber dewing. Soldier, rest! thy warfare o’er, Dream of fighting fields no more; Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking, Morn of toil, nor night of waking. No rude sound shall reach thine ear, Armour’s clang, or war-steed champing, Trump nor pibroch summon here Mustering clan or squadron tramping. Yet the lark’s shrill fife may come At the daybreak from the fallow, And the bittern sound his drum, Booming from the sedgy shallow. Ruder sounds shall none be near, Gu...

  Long before Covid, or the war in Ukraine, I came to the realization that humanity is doomed. In the book "The Uninhabitable Earth," the author comes to the optimistic conclusion that there is hope for people to extend their ability to live on Earth through immediate radical government, and corporate change. I use the word "extend" because the damage we’ve already done will eventually end humanity, no matter what. The author of "The End of Nature" called for that radical change to begin in 1989. I even wrote lyrics for a song about it back in 1992, called “Dead World.” I look at the way people behave right now, and have to say we’re too greedy, stupid, and lazy to do what’s necessary to make life remain as stable as it is currently. As a person living in the Pacific Northwest, I live with yet another reminder of the fragility of our current quality of life. We are long overdue for the catastrophic Cascadian Subduction Zone earthquake. Yet, here I remain...

  By Scott Candey  Based on a story and drawings by Jonathan Canady 2049 - Insulated from the repercussions of it's unique hunger. Humanity isolates in towering pyramids scattered across the world. Two workers, in the art vault sector of pyramid Zed-43, talk. Ensconced in the obsolete sterile suits issued to Zed block, they are indistinguishable.  “You ever think about how it came to all this?” Number Two's words are hollowed out behind his mask.  “Sure.” Number One didn't look up from the crate at his feet. “It was a short think though… money. Money, is your answer.” “Money? What good is that now?”  One tugged at his suit, aligning his eye holes to his eyeballs. “It's beyond good or bad now, it's just habit. It’s been like this since before you and me. When we're dead some other stiffs will be humping around in these same suits. You can bank that.” “But, the commissary takes work credits. They wouldn't know money if they saw it. ...

My recording Present Shock (now bonus tracks on the Suffering and Defiance CD / digital release - listen / purchase here on bandcamp ) was made with the idea of simply capturing a random moment in time. The two tracks were recorded, edited, and released on October 2nd, 2020. The concept was the important thing, not the day itself. My approach was to record the two tracks in the moment, while using a live radio broadcast as a sound source, in addition to my usual analog synthesizer. The cover photo (below) was taken of a live TV news anchor, while I was editing the tracks. During that stage, I let the general idea process in my mind, in order to lead me to the song titles. Coincidentally, around the same time I watched The Social Dilemma with my partner, and was trying to remember the name of Douglas Rushkoff's related book that I had read a few years earlier. That failed to happen, but the title popped into my brain as I was editing the music. The phrase "Present Shock...

  The ideas behind my Abraxus series first began forming when I lived in Philadelphia. Around 2008, or so, I was on the train to work, and ran across a folded sheet of very strange writing. The page was completely filled with frantic text, and highlighted with various colors. I found it fascinating. A few years later, I was on the same train, and I saw a very tall man, in beat up clothing, putting the same type of paper in the train schedule holders. He also put a grocery bag collage on a seat (photo above). I asked him if I could have one of the sheets of writing. He said, "For a one dollar donation." I paid him, and he said something to the effect of, "These are words direct from God, and you won't learn them in a church." This experience reminded me of two other Philadelphia visionary art-phenomena: The Wireman, and the Toyenbee Tiles. This may sound incredibly insensitive, but I would regularly find myself fantasizing about being a homeless artist, expressi...