John Reed

By Chris Gulker

John Reed was perhaps the farthest-out artist of the legions who lived in the lofts above Pasadena's Old Town in the 60s and 70s. Corky Peterson, Joe Ferris and John scraped for beer money working odd jobs by day and painting, sculpting and cooking up performance art ideas in the evenings (alongside Ed Rucscha and others who would go on to fame). 

John's work was utterly free-form, and mixed ideas that were completely out of wack. Some elements
reminded one of young children's doodlings, free-form lines, fuzzy blotches, thrown paint and effects so
original as to defy description.

I was part owner of a Colorado Blvd. bar in the late 70s along with Corky and Jim Kendall, where John,
Joe and the loft denizens (by now shifting to abandoned office buildings as rents rose) hung out, along
with residents of a notorious transient hotel.

John wound up breaking into and living for a long time in a building that had once been a spa on the
Arroyo Seco. Now Federal property, he vexed the security quards who kept trying to throw him out of
the huge rambling structure. John would revel us in the evening with his stories. They installed a
burglar alarm: John stole it and sold it, along with copper and lead plumbing, crystal door knobs, brass
plumbing fixtures and other "salvage". The Feds finally remodelled it as a ceremonial courthouse, and
John had to go. Much of John's work was lost during this period, when guards would find his digs and
trash his belongings.

John began a slow journey down in those years: he worked less, drank more, spent more time hanging
with a scruffy transient crowd. He oftened lived in oleander bushes in Arroyo Seco park. He got dirty,
his red hair and beard became matted, his skin was red form exposure. He began to wind up hospitalized
or in jail after being beaten and dumped in alleys.

I saw John, now thoroughly homeless, this year in Pasadena. He's in his fifties I think, though he looks
much older. I think he had a glimmer of recognition from the old days, though he didn't know my
name. His art is long gone, his work lost as far as I know.

Joe's painting casts John as a sharp hipster, with an evil eye and a wide-brim hat (I think of the ZZ Top
lyric "I'm bad, I'm nationwide") which is what John really never was. He tried, but he was a soft and
goofy kind of guy who always worried about small animals and such.

That tension heightens the impact of this painting for me, which was a birthday present from Joe one
year. The digitizing process (using close-up lenses on a QuickTake 100) has raised the contrast and
emphasized the reds and blues.

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Chris Gulker cg@gulker.com