Kerouac Painting by Tom Field (and how it got its name)

Wassup?

You know when you buy a juicy art book, flick through and consciously miss pages because you're saving them for later? Sometimes 'later' can be months, or even years for me. I have big art books that I savour, in small doses. Don't you? I even forget about them, then spot them on the shelf. It pleases me to know there are unexplored artworks on pages amongst all those books. In theory this should mean I need to buy less books but if you're a book hound like me, you know it doesn't work like that.

Well, the other day I was flicking through An Opening of the Field: Jess, Robert Duncan, and Their Circle, which I bought in March of this year and I came across this painting by Tom Field. I took proper notice of it for the first time because the title, Kerouac Painting, caught my eye. I wondered what it had to do with Kerouac, then read the brief biography about Tom Field that precedes the painting. Towards the end it reveals how it got its name. Kerouac was sitting on a couch under it when he decided to add a doodle to the bottom right-hand corner. It's barely visible, not something you would notice without prior knowledge. Cheeky, eh? So it became Kerouac Painting. 

Tom Field, by the way, appears in Kerouac's Big Sur as 'Lanny Meadows'.

TTFN