•
Well. The degrading and ever-ignorant medialoids strike again.
A while back, I posted a short article on Michael’s personal artist, David Nordahl. Since then, more of Nordahl’s work has appeared in the Michael Jackson Opus. The medialoids (media/tabloids – which are one and the same these days since the “news” media more and more simply parrots tabloid trash as “news”) as per usual, didn’t miss an opportunity to use this entry in the Opus to trash and negatively define Michael Jackson. The image which was the subject of this latest derisive diatribe by an ignorant media outlet/tabloid is this one:
"Michael" (Detail oil on canvas 136" x 80") This painting, wich David Nordahl completed in 1999, is clearly visible behind the singer during his interviews with Martin Bashir at Neverland for the 2003 documentary Living With Michael Jackson. "I loved the challenge of painting this size canvas," Nordahl says.
• • •
Now, the ignorant tabloid, which I REFUSE to link to here because I do not want to garner them any more web traffic or attention, defined this work as “Creepy” and defined the cherubs in the painting as “little boys” floating around Michael and related that to the FALSE allegations made against Michael in the past. They did this in order to fit the painting into THEIR ever-present negative definition of Michael Jackson as a “freak” and a “child molester“.
I guess THAT is what sells, though it is nowhere near any truth whatsoever – as little of what they publish, broadcast and print ever is.
The ignoramuses of course do not mention that these works are patterned after the work of Michelangelo, who was Michael Jackson’s favorite non-living artist, and that in Michelangelo’s work, there was a lot of artistic nudity. They also fail to mention – of course – that “cherubs” in the Christian religion – are divine spirits that serve God closely. As such they became known as “angelic spirits” and were placed with the seraphim in the 1st and highest triad of the hierarchy of angels. Some people use the word cherub informally as a general term for all forms of angel.
So, given Michael’s love of Michelangelo’s work, and Michael’s very strong spiritual and religious beliefs, their derogatory and self-righteous assertion that the work is “creepy” and that these are “little boys” floating around Michael is horrendously ignorant and trashy. By continually going to the lengths they do to define Michael Jackson in nasty and negative terms, the medialoids bring into clear focus their OWN ignorance and trashy nature in regards to art and truth.
Good enough for them, I say. Pfft.
NOW that is out of the way, I want to highlight some of Nordahl’s other work with Michael Jackson from a fantastic article about his decades as Michael’s personal artist – and in particular, his comments about Michael, who he’d known for many years. You will find of course, that Nordahl’s comments about Michael, what he was like and who he really was, are exactly the OPPOSITE of the way he is portrayed by the medialoids. That is the case with anyone who actually KNEW Michael Jackson, and therefore knew the TRUTH.
First, I want to present one painting David Nordahl did for Michael that makes me smile and which I find tremendously charming. Michael clearly adored his children:
Prince, The Boy King (oil on canvas, 81" x 59") Nordahl began sketches of Michael's first child in 1999 and completed the painting in May 2000. "This painting was so much fun to do," Nordahl says. "It was totally Michael's idea, and I thought it was a clever idea for a portrait. Since Prince was the first-born, we did his portrait first, but plans were to do portraits of Paris and Blanket as well." Those plans were not carried out before Michael's death.
• • •
David Nordahl ducked the media for years in regards to Michael (considering their nasty little diatribe about the painting above in the Opus, can you blame him?):
because they wanted to talk about negative stuff, and I don’t know anything bad about Michael. I always thought of him as normal. He’s the most thoughtful, respectful person I’ve ever met. In 20 years, I never heard him raise his voice.
• • •
David helped design Neverland, was a victim of Michael’s practical jokes, shared his workaholic ethic, and was witness to Michael’s bohemian lifestyle:
His duties expanded to amusement park design after Jackson began developing the ranch north of Santa Barbara, Calif., and Nordahl juggled several projects while adapting to Jackson’s enchanted lifestyle. At Neverland, the two tested rides and tended the exotic menagerie.
They took trips to Disneyland and spent time at billionaire Ron Burkle’s La Jolla, Calif., estate, where Jackson’s insomnia often meant Nordahl was enlisted for wee-hour practical jokes and beachside chats. (He also was a victim of Jackson’s notorious tricks, once finding his briefcase stuffed with bubblegum.)
He discovered the unglamorous Jackson, who in the late ’80s often drove by himself in a Chevy Blazer (and relieved himself in a bucket because he couldn’t risk being mobbed at gas stations) and lived in a two-bedroom Los Angeles condo.
“I expected a penthouse with maids,” Nordahl says. “There was a grand piano pushed into the kitchen, a popcorn machine and a good sound system. The other furniture, you couldn’t have gotten 50 bucks for it at a garage sale. Before the kids, Michael lived real simply.”
What fueled this bromance?
“I grew up in a difficult home, and he did too,” says Nordahl, whom Jackson thanks in liner notes for 1991’s Dangerous and 1995’s HIStory. “We had no playtime growing up. We’re both fanatical about work.
“There was a bond.”
• • •
David on Michael and children, the horrendous accusations made against Michael, the constant media abuse directed at him, and how it all affected him:
What Nordahl saw in Jackson was a wounded and misunderstood genius who felt spiritually obligated to help children.
Though Jackson was acquitted in his 2005 child sexual abuse trial, it “broke his spirit,” Nordahl says. “Michael would never molest a child. He always felt so bad for kids who were mistreated or sick. He spent so much time with critically ill kids. If a mother called about a dying child somewhere, he’d jump on a plane.
People talked about Neverland being his private amusement park. It was always meant for kids. The last time I was at the ranch, they put up a big Sony JumboTron across from a condo building for sick children, so if kids woke up at night, cartoons would be on.”
• • •
David on Michael’s vitiligo, which he saw firsthand years ago:
People accused him of trying to be white, which is ridiculous,” he says. “When I first met him, his vitiligo (a skin disorder that causes pigmentation loss) had gone to the right side of his face and down his neck. Most of his right hand was white. Stark white patches. He used makeup because he had to. Without it, he was speckled all over.”
• • •
and on the scalp burn Michael sustained during the filming of the Pepsi commercial:
When they were trying to repair that burned spot, he had a balloon under his scalp that was inflated. He let me feel it. It was a huge mound. As the skin got stretched, they cut it out and stitched the scalp. He was in excruciating pain.
• • •
and on Michael as a father:
Michael was a real dad, not a Hollywood dad. He’d get up at night to feed them bottles. He’d change them, bathe them, everything a mother does.
All the time I spent with those kids, I never heard them beg for anything or throw a fit. I never heard them cry. They were so well-adjusted.
The kids were not allowed to watch TV or DVDs or play video games except through points earned by their schoolwork. Nothing was given to them. Michael said, ‘I want them to grow up as close to normal as possible.’ Those kids were so respectful and courteous, just sweet.
• • •
And last but certainly not least, David Nordahl on his decades-long friendship with Michael Jackson:
We got to be such good friends that I forgot who I was hanging out with. Then he’d break into these dance moves, quick as lightning, and it would dawn on me: He’s the best entertainer in the world.
• • •
And on that note, I leave you with this piece of absolute magic and beauty, courtesy of the lovely David Nordahl:
"Playmates for a Lonely Child (oil on linen, 41" x 41") Painted in 1990, this inaugural commision was entirely Nordahl's idea. A childhood photo of his wife, Lori Peterson, was used as a model for the girl with the fairy, and Janet Jackson is depicted carrying a rabbit in the foreground amid a horse- drawn calliope, dancers, music-makers and misschief-makers. "I sent it to Michael and told him if he didn't like it he could send it back," Nordahl says. "He kept it. You can see Michael in his Smooth Criminal suit standing in the light under the growth on the tree."
Tags: Angels, Art, Children, Friends, Justice, Quotes About MJ
