Many actors make art as a hobby. As famous people, they could sell shit in a sock. And they do. A lot of their artwork is bad, very bad.
The late Martin Mull’s art is good, very good.
We know him mainly as an actor, starting with “MARY HARTMAN, MARY HARTMAN”, and as the unctuous pseudo-talk show host Barth Gimble on “FERNWOOD 2NITE” and “AMERICA 2NITE”, the latter two with Fred Willard and Frank DeVol. But he thought of himself as primarily a fine artist, and he had a Masters Degree in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design, a famous art school.
He also had a flourishing music career, with several record albums, many released later in digital form. He was a songwriter who mixed music with humor, some of it biting.
His art, his songs, and much of his acting had an edge to it. A soft, Ohio-like edge, mellowed by infusions of Lake Erie and its many effluents, but he never tells you directly what to think. Is he being a jerk? An asshole? Bumbling? Benign, malignant, intellectual?
I pick intellectual. Martin Mull was, in the end, an intellectual and a professional fine artist, first and foremost.
His art is potent. Look at his painting up above, “THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH IN ADVERTISING”. I see three white people who are entitled to sit in the middle of the street, admiring their white globe (world), while busy people of color have to hustle and work around the stable three.
I’m sure it’s not that simple. And Mull would never have spelled it out that plainly. He wanted – wants, still, after his passing – you to look at his art and make up your own stories.
As far as I can guess, Martin Mull was a small “L” libertarian. But who knows. As always, he leaves you free to think what you want to about his characters, his figures, and his notes.
Soft, but sharp, and charming:
