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Which thing in the apartment has the best back story?

Probably the ‘color bars’ painting that hangs over my computer. It’s the classic TV test pattern. It’s probably almost 20 years old now. It was the result of a bet. It was the early 1990s, when I was still in Canada. I was at the National Gallery in Ottawa and they had this painting that was called ‘Voice of Fire.’ ‘Voice of Fire’ was this painting that was two or three strips of fabric, maybe they were painted one color.

The artist made some number and people were paying in the millions of dollars for these things that were just plain colors. And I was in an argument with my wife, you know: ‘How can they pay this guy two million dollars for that? Anybody can do that.’ And at that point she kind of challenged me.

‘Well, if anybody can do that why don’t you do some art?’

And I was like,  ‘I will!’

So I set up a place in a little corner of our house where I was going to do my art. Not having any training in art, I went down to the art store and asked them what kind of paint I would need and what kind of canvas I would need. I decided that my contemporary art was going to be to paint the color bars. Then without letting her see it, I said, ’O.K., now we have to plan the unveiling party.’ I dressed in black for the unveiling party, which meant I had to go out and buy an all-black outfit because I didn’t own one. And we unveiled my contemporary art, which is my first and only piece of contemporary art. But it still hangs in a place of honor.

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The New York Observer

(via Eric)