Listen to the Interview:
Part 1
John Lithgow
Featured Artist, Painter
By Jeremy Pollack, Forth Editor
Photos by Bootsy Holler

I met John Lithgow (pronounced “Lith-go” to my surprise) at Santa Monica Fine Art Studios one night during an open house. Among the many fine artists that hold space at the studio, John was showing his work publicly for the first time that evening in mid June. FORTH sponsored the event, and Sofiya—our Events Director—introduced me to the artist early in the night. Lithgow towered above me at 6’5” but tendered an easy, welcoming presence. After browsing the magazine, he cordially accepted the offer for FORTH …

Echo Park was where I grew up

And where Tom Waits sat drooling bourbon drunk
And cocaine heavy in the 70s
And where in the 90s chinks stood atop grocery markets with AK-47s
And blacks ran down streets in a glorious show of the power of mayhem
And it was like watching hundreds of fingers coming together as a fist
Pulling men from trucks

I was born
to live a single day
lived it as long as I could
My childhood was my first hour
and I cried it into a second
hour when I wrecked all that I touched
In the third hour

Sitting in a bar in Culver City, watching the TV in the corner. Ashes rain down on L.A. & people’s lives go up in smoke, but it’s just like any other reality show. Thousands flee like it was a disaster movie — some are badly burned while firefighters — snap — die fighting nature & nature grows back stronger when it is all over / only to be burned down again.

End of summer & football is creeping back on TV. Went hiking on Wednesday in Temescal & almost stepped on a pregnant rattlesnake. It shook its tail at me like a maraca of death & I kept sweating it out on the mountain / my Roman wilderness of pain.