’Marks On Paper’
’Marks On Paper’
’Marks On Paper’
’Marks On Paper’
HIGHLIGHTS 25 NOVEMBER 2003 1 MIN READ

'Marks On Paper'

Painting the illustrations for 'Peter and the Wolf', Bono drew on hisrelationship with his father, writes Neil McCormick ...

25 Nov 2003
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Painting the illustrations for 'Peter and the Wolf', Bono drew on hisrelationship with his father, writes Neil McCormick in the UK's DailyTelegraph.

"Art is an attempt to identify yourself," Bono once said to me. In whichcase, judging by the self-portraits that form part of the U2 singer's firstexhibition of paintings, Bono appears to have identified himself as a bakedbean.

"I really did look like one until I was 13, and the freckly sphere waspunctured by a rather large nose!" he jokes. "I'm not making any greatclaims for my abilities as an artist. I was just hanging out with my kidsone moment, having a laugh with a paintbrush - next thing you know, I'mexhibiting in the Rockefeller Center."

At Christie's in New York last weekend, the auction of the illustrationsraised a big sum for charity (see our earlier story), and proceeds go to the Irish Hospice Foundation - andhospice care providers worldwide - which helped take care of Bono's father,Bob Hewson, when he died of cancer in 2001.

"I love art too much to call these anything other than marks on paper," hesays. Nevertheless, there has certainly been a cathartic aspect to his firstpublic foray into the art world. Peter and the Wolf, he says, is essentiallya lesson in teaching music to children, an area in which he felt he wasbadly let down in his own childhood.

"I got to work out one of those little kinks that I have that drives me,this frustration I feel as a musician, not being able to get the melodies Ihear in my head out into the world. My father was a beautiful tenor wholoved opera, but he never imagined that music might be handed down, like hisbad back and his bad temper, so he never bothered us about learning aninstrument."

Bono is particularly galled by the memory of how his father turned down theopportunity to move his granny's piano into their small house in Ballymun,near Dublin, claiming there was no room.

"As a kid, I would have loved to have learned to play the piano. I think I'mmore than angry about the reasons I didn't. Without the band I wouldexplode. Or worse, I'd just numb that area. I think that's what happens topeople who have a gift and they can't get it out; they fence it off, put alot of ice on it, and walk with a limp. So I kind of got to mark thatmoment; that's really what art is to me. And to use humour. U2 songs are nota bag of laughs, but with these works I got up to some mischief."

Central to the tale of Peter and the Wolf is the parental relationship. Itis about a daring child (cast in these illustrations as young Bono himself)and protective grandparent (modelled on Bono's father). Bono's mother diedwhen he was 14, and he has long recognised that this was a defining momentin his life, pushing him in two directions at once: towards his profoundfaith in God and towards rock and roll.

But the peculiar thing is that he has admitted he doesn't really rememberhis mother well. The key parental relationship was with his father. Bonogrew up (with his brother Norman) in a house of men, numbed by grief, unableto share their feelings.

"If you are trying to fill that kind of hole, music and being a performer isan obvious route," says Bono. "Insecurity is at the root of most interestingendeavours, I find. If you're totally secure in yourself, and you were toldall your life that you were the bee's knees, well, you're probably going towind up with a respectable job in the city or something. And that's what Iwant my kids to feel, by the way. I don't like being The Boy Named Sue!"

Bono speaks with great affection about the father with whom he had such acomplex, distant, yearning relationship that he once said to me: "Greatperformers are supposed to play to the back of the hall. But really drivenperformers, I think you'll find, are playing to one person. It might be alover. But it might be your father."

Bono has two boys of his own, Eli, 4, and John, 2. "You relive your ownchildhood with your kids," says Bono. "If your little boy is four years old,you remember being four. It's kind of spooky, because I sing songs to mykids that I don't know the words of, or the melodies, and yet I am singingthem. Obviously, I remember this from my own childhood. You're so receptivewhen you're a child. You pick up quirks and cracks, as well as thesemelodies and stories. After the old man died, Ali said I was walkingdifferently and adopting some of his mannerisms.

This is an edited extract of Neil McCormick's interview. Read the wholearticle here - you need to sign up for freeregistration first.

Buy the CD and book of Peter and the Wolf here
www.peterwolf.org

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