John Priori - the B r u s h with Authority

Welcome you to the website of

“The

with Authority”

Before you make yourself too comfortable, I would like to show you some scenes of Mr Priori ensuring that the he makes are seen in all the right places…..

..and, strangely enough, in the wrong ones too. Quelle Horreur!!

Curriculum vitae…

Mr Priori was born in nineteen something or other and was fortunate enough to begin his musical education at Christ’s Hospital - recently brought to the nation’s attention by Channel 4 and that prize plonker from Kiss- Gene Simmons.
After leaving what is still the richest school in the country he then studied violin, flute and composition for four more years at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Among the more important luminaries he has worked with since then have been Lindsay Kemp [when that sort of thing really was outrageous], Sam Shepherd, Stomu Yamash’ta with his Red Buddha Theatre, The Wakefield Tricycle Theatre Company, Jesus Christ Superstar and the comic lunatic Ken Campbell.
Finally, Mr Priori was lucky enough to have met the iconoclastic Steven Berkoff where he was asked to be Musical Director/composer on a number of his productions, including the original productions of “East”, “Metamorphoses”, “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “Hamlet”.
Having toured Australia a couple of times with Mr. Berkoff, Mr. Priori is, as far as he knows, the only person to have visited Tasmania twice, but on returning to the UK decided that he had had enough of what was a pretty rootless and unreal existence, and is now much happier spending his time cleaning W9’s windows which, fortuitously,
leads him to his next paragraph…

Why he is an artist. [v.imp!]

While I was setting myself up as "John the Window Cleaner" in 1987, I happened to knock on the door of 83 Sutherland Avenue [London W9]
to be greeted by a jovial red headed Welshman who said to me [in English I hasten to add- and these are his very words]
"You look like an Artist. Will you paint me a picture?"
I swallowed a couple of times staring at the blank wall above his sofa that he was referring to.
"Yeah. OK." I replied, calling his bluff.
"How much will it cost me?"
I swallowed again, slightly more so, and quickly snatched an arbitrary figure from out of the ether.
"Two hundred pounds." I answered just like that. Remember, this was 1987.
"Fine. Fine," he replied. "Fine."
The gist of this is that he then gave me, a total stranger, £200.00 in cash and told me to go away and do some sketches.
Just think about it! There you are, in a total stranger’s sitting room, and he’s giving you £200.00 to paint him a picture!
But don't switch sites just yet- there's more! I told my sister about this and she was dutifully impressed, but said,
"John- you've got no money for materials. I'd go back and ask him for another £100.00!"
"I'd like another £100.00 for materials," I asked him sheepishly a few days later.
"Fine," he said. "Fine. I'll give it to you when I OK your sketches."
"Hmmm." I thought to myself. "What am I going to do?"
I then had the brilliant idea of inverting the design of the mirror he had hanging over his mantelpiece, so that the frame became the substance and the substance [in this case the glass] became the frame. He thought the idea was good enough to give me the extra £100.00 and his "painting" was ready in about ten days. Quite extraordinary under the circumstances don't you think?
And even more so when I tell you his name. His name was Mr. Tune. Yes, Mr. Jeff Tune! Fancy that!

In bourgeois society social relations are denied in the form of relations between men, and take on the form of a relation between man and a thing, a property relation, which, because it is a dominating relation, is believed to make man free.
But this is an illusion.
The property relation is only a disguise for relations, which now become unconscious and therefore anarchic but are still between man and man and in particular between exploiter and exploited…..
DH Lawrence was well aware that the pure artist cannot exist today and that the artist must inevitably be a man hating cash relationships and the market and profoundly interested in the relationships between people. Not only that, but he must be interested in changing them- dissatisfied with them as they are and wanting newer fuller values in personal relationships.

Hot off the Press: 6 medium sized (24" x 32" / 610 mm x 812 mm)c.5kg

are “constructed”, if that is the word, on 12mm [1/2 inch] plywood.

The wood is cut to order at my local DIY store and then sanded,

primed and finally painted with two coats of white eggshell. This forms a base for anything

I might like to do before the mirror glass is

affixed.

Similarly, once I have worked out a regular

geometric shape or pattern to match the

“distressed” painted background, the glass is cut to order at

a specialized glazier and, before it is finally

transfixed, the prepared surface is given two coats of

clear polyurethane varnish. N.B.

’ glass edges are “arrissed” so as to prevent injury:

I don’t want anyone ringing me up threatening to sue- just

because they’ve cut their finger.

Ah diddums.

The standard

size is a poster one, at 50cm by 75 cm [20 inches by 30].

They weigh about two kilograms and can be easily hung on any

vertical surface with a proprietary picture hook. The larger, 80cm by 120cm

[32 by 48] weigh about 12 kilograms and would need to be hung

properly:

i.e. with a drill, rawlplug and screw:

No messing about here I hasten to add.

As you can see, some

can be hung in two different ways: To make your choice,

please adjust the picture hook/wire at the back accordingly.

This is not a particularly onerous task: even for the most cack-handed of people.

can be made to order to match the required design of any interior

- limited only by its weight. I obviously don’t

[but do in a way] want them to bring the house down. If

you would like to buy a

, or even two or more, please e-mail me or contact me

on my landline number at

the bottom of the page. Alternatively, if you would like to visit my studio

and purchase there this can be

arranged.

Small

are priced at between £195.00 and £495.00- the larger ones at one price of £995.00. The postage,

packing, insurance and delivery in the UK for one small

is £30.00. There is no delivery charge on orders over £995.00.

Delivery to anywhere in the UK outside Greater London is next day by express courier

- the rest of the world to be arranged. If you would like to pay by cheque any

you buy will only be despatched once said cheque has cleared.

Credit card payments can be made via Paypal:

You will need an email address to do this.

To order a

, click on its image. You will then see a larger image of the work, and

a button to press should you wish to buy it.

If you do not have a PayPal account,

you will need to provide your credit card details, your e-mail address, and your postal address.

You will also need to think of a password

and this must be at least eight characters long.

For those who, perhaps, through reasons of their own, decided thatwere not quite to your taste, please click here for alternative valedictory gesture …