上星期有些MJ畫作的複製品損給了LA CHILDREN HOSPITAL，而作為MJ的導師並跟MJ合作管理有關畫作的Brett-Livingstone Strong接受訪問，展出更多MJ的畫，並公開MJ創作的地方--位於Santa Monica機場的飛機庫。
他展示了一個他跟MJ設計的MJ紀念館模型，MJ希望這紀念館裡面會播MJ的音樂，可以讓買了畫作複製品的FANS在裡面結婚行禮。MJ覺得這最適合在Las Vegas，不過現在Los Angeles對此似乎可能興趣。
93年MJ本來打算以本來透過出售限量版的畫作複製品來得到收益去支持一個LA的青年計劃，並支他選擇的慈善團體。但因戀童的指控而告吹。
他又披露MJ的畫作有機會在LA的CITY HALL展出，亦有些跟美術館的討論，而最終他希望可以為MJ起一美術館去展示MJ的作品。
Michael Jackson's Art and Studio, Revealed for the First Time
http://blogs.laweekly.com/stylecouncil/2011/08/michael_jacksons_art_revealed.php
By Sophie Duvernoy
See more photos in "Michael Jackson Art: An Exclusive Look at the Musician's Drawings and Paintings." Until now, Michael Jackson's art collection was shrouded in mystery. It was said to be stuck in a legal dispute over possession. Then, people speculated that buyers such as Cirque du Soleil's Guy Laliberté were interested. It's been valued at the staggering (and slightly unbelievable) sum of $900 million.
One crucial fact: Jackson 's art collection isn't art by other people -- it's mainly drawings and paintings that he created himself. So what does that art look like?
Yesterday, LA Weekly was the first to visit the (until now) top-secret Santa Monica Airport hangar that Jackson used as his studio and art storehouse. The collection is currently owned by Brett-Livingstone Strong, the Australian monument builder and Jackson 's art mentor through the years, in conjunction with the Jackson estate.
Though the entire art collection has been mired in disputes and battles for rights, Strong claims that he is working with everybody -- the family, the estate, as well as others -- to exhibit and publish as much of Jackson's work as possible.
According to Strong, he and Jackson formed an incorporated business partnership in 1989, known as the Jackson-Strong alliance. This gave each partner a fifty-percent stake in the other's art. In 2008, Strong says, Jackson requested that his attorney sign the rights to Jackson 's portion of the art over to Strong. Now, Strong is beginning to reveal more and more of the art as he goes ahead with Jackson 's dream of organizing a museum exhibit.
Strong gave us a tour of the hangar, beginning with the Michael Jackson monument that Strong and Jackson co-designed several years ago. It's perhaps bombastic, but designed with good intentions and the rabid Jackson fan in mind. Strong explains, "He wanted his fans to be able to get married at a monument that would have all of his music [in an archive, and playing on speakers], to inspire some of his fans." The current design is still in the works, but it's conceived as an interactive monument -- fans who buy a print by Jackson will receive a card in the mail. They can scan this card at the monument, and then have a computer organize a personal greeting for them, or allow them to book it for weddings. Jackson initially thought it would be perfect for Las Vegas , but Strong says that Los Angeles might have the honor of hosting it -- apparently, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa recently paid a visit and made a few oblique promises.
(中文解說：mjjcn.com KEEN)
傑克遜和澳洲畫家斯特朗多年前合作設計的一座邁克爾·傑克遜紀念碑開始。它有些誇張，但設計的用意是好的並心系著他那些瘋狂的歌迷。斯特朗解釋說，“他想讓歌迷能在這座紀念碑前結婚，揚聲器迴圈播放著他的音樂，以激勵他們。”
目前的設計仍在進行中，但它被設想成一個互動的模式——買了傑克遜畫作複製品的歌迷會通過郵件收到一張卡片，歌迷可以在紀念碑掃描卡片，然後電腦識別一張私人邀請函或允許他們預訂婚禮。傑克遜最初想把這個紀念碑放到拉斯維加斯，認為那裏完全匹配，但斯特朗說它最終可能會落戶洛杉磯——顯然，市長安東尼奧·維拉萊戈薩最近前來拜訪過，並做了幾個並不直接的許諾。
你想在這裏結婚嗎？
As for Jackson 's art, the contents of the hangar barely scratched the surface of the collection, as Strong estimates Jackson 's total output at 150 to 160 pieces. A few large pieces hanging on the walls had been donated as reproductions to the L.A. Children's Hospital last Monday, along with other sketches and poems.
傑克遜親筆素描美國開國元勳、第一任總統喬治·華盛頓的肖像。傑克遜曾經計畫自己畫一整套美國總統的肖像，但沒有來得及繼續完成這個想法。 But Jackson also created portraits: a small sketch of Paul McCartney, and a large drawing of George Washington, created as Strong was working with the White House to commemorate the bicentennial of the Constitution back in 1987. He also sketched self-portraits -- one as a humorous four-panel drawing charting his growing-up process, and a darker one that depicts him as a child cowering in a corner, inscribed with a sentence reflecting on his fragility.
As an artist, Jackson preferred using wax pencils, though Strong adds, "He did do a lot of watercolors but he gave them away. He was a little intimidated by mixing colors." Some surviving pencils are archived in the hangar; Strong moves over to a cabinet on the far wall of the hangar and pulls out a ziploc bag containing a blue wax pencil, a white feathered quill and a white glove that Jackson used for drawing.
Jackson turned to art as times got hard for him. "His interest in art, in drawing it, was just another level of his creativity that went on over a long period of time," Strong says. "It was quite private to him. I think he retreated into it when he was being attacked by those accusations against him." The sketches and drawings certainly reveal an extremely sensitive creator, though it's clear that Jackson also had a sense of humor.
Jackson's art was kept under wraps for such a long time simply because of the pedophilia scandal, which erupted right around the time that he was looking for a way to publicize the works. "A lot of his art was going to be exhibited 18 years ago. Here's one of his tour books, where he talks about exhibiting art. He didn't want it to be a secret," Strong says, pointing at a leaflet from the 1992 Dangerous World Tour.
Strong and Jackson wearing matching leather and velvet jackets, celebrating their artistic alliance
澳洲藝術家 斯特朗和 MJ 曾經的聯盟
Prior to that period, Jackson and Strong had met and become fast friends. This marked the beginning of Strong's mentorship, in which he encouraged Jackson to create bigger paintings and drawings, and exhibit his work. The idea behind their Jackson-Strong Alliance was that Strong would help Jackson manage and exhibit his art. Notably, the alliance birthed Strong's infamous $2 million portrait of Michael Jackson entitled The Book, the only known portrait Jackson ever sat for. In 1993, everything blew up. At the time, Jackson and Strong were both on the board of Big Brothers of Los Angeles (now known as Big Brothers Big Sisters), a chapter of the national youth mentoring organization established in L.A. by Walt Disney and Meredith Willson. They had planned out a fundraising campaign involving Jackson 's art. Strong explains, "We thought that if we would market [his art] in limited edition prints to his fans, he could support the charities that he wanted to, rather than have everybody think that he was so wealthy he could afford to finance everybody." When the pedophilia scandal erupted, Disney put a freeze on the project. The artwork stayed put, packed away from public eyes in storage crates.
傑克遜親筆手繪懷特兄弟試飛人類歷史上第一架飛機！傑克遜原本希望把這幅畫捐獻給聖塔莫妮卡機場。 As for the spectacular appraisal of $900 million for Jackson 's art collection, Strong says that it derives from the idea of reproducing prints as well. The figure was originally quoted by Eric Finzi, of Belgo Fine Art Appraisers. "The reason somebody came out with that was because there was an appraisal on if all of his originals were reproduced -- he wanted to do limited editions of 777 -- and he would sell them to his fan base in order to build his monument, support kids and do other things. You multiply that by 150 originals, and if they sold for a few thousand dollars each, then you would end up with 900 million dollars." Fair enough, though now Strong says he has gone to an appraiser in Chicago to get that value double-checked, and they arrived at an even higher estimate. The story of Jackson 's art ends up being quite a simple one, though confused by so much hearsay and rumor. Strong and the Jackson estate will slowly reveal more works as time passes, and an exhibit is tentatively planned for L.A. 's City Hall. Negotiations with museums for a posthumous Jackson retrospective are still underway, but Strong has high hopes. He's even talking of building a Michael Jackson museum that would house all of Jackson 's artwork.
Jackson's sketch of the White House doors, to which he added the following quote from John Adams: "I pray heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house and all that shall inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men [MJ's addition:] or women rule under this roof.
傑克遜親筆手繪的美國白宮大門。他還特別添加上了來自美國第二任總統約翰·亞當斯當年的引言：“我祈禱上帝能夠降最大的福佑於這幢房屋，以及所有以後在此居住的人們。但願只有真誠兼智慧的男人和女人才能在這屋定居統治。”（注：“和女人”是傑克遜加上的，亞當斯原文裏沒有。） We'll leave you with Strong's own description of Jackson at work, during the time where they shared a studio in a house in Pacific Palisades:
He was in a very light and happy mood most of the time. He would have the oldies on, and sometimes he'd hear some of his Jackson Five songs. He'd kind of move along to that, but most of the time he would change it and listen to a variety of songs. He liked classical music. His inspiration to create was that he loved life, and wanted to express his love of life in some of these simple compositions.
“大多數時候，他都輕鬆又快樂。他會播放一些老歌，有時他會放一些傑克遜五兄弟的歌。大多數時候他會聽不同類型的歌。他喜歡古典樂。他創作的靈感，來源於他對生命的熱愛，他有欲望想用簡單的創作來表達他對生命的熱愛。” I came to the studio one day, and we had a Malamute. I came into the house, and I heard this dog barking and thought, Wow, I wonder what that is. I go into the kitchen, and I couldn't help but laugh when I see Michael up in the pots and pans in the middle of the center island. He's holding a pen and paper and the dog is running around the island and barking at him, and he says, "He wants to play! He wants to play!" He's laughing, and I'm laughing about it as I'm thinking to myself, "I'm wondering how long he's been up there."
中文來源 ：mjjcn.com 翻譯：Sara_Lee
有一天我去畫室，有段時間那裏養了只愛斯基摩狗。那天當我進屋時，聽到了狗叫聲，我很納悶，心想：“ 發生什麼事兒了？” 循聲來到廚房，抬眼一看，把我樂壞了：只見Michael 站在廚房中央的那個廚臺上，藏在那些倒掛著的各種鍋的中間，手裏握著一支筆還有一張紙（Sara：估計事情發生前，MJ 可能正在作畫吧？! ），那只狗則圍著那個廚台一邊打轉一邊沖著他狂吠不止，看到我進來，Michael 說：“ 它想玩兒了！它在鬧著玩兒呢! ” 然後，我倆都忍不住放聲大笑，同時我也暗自尋思著：不知道他已經在那個廚臺上呆多久了？！
Michael Jackson's dedication to art: so strong that he'll end up perched on a kitchen island.
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