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Chicken Little’s Issues—World Headquarters of Me pg218

Colorful companion to my memoir The Incompetent Psychic

Mernie Buchanan
2 min readFeb 10, 2021

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Chicken Little’s Issues 2002

An odd thing would happen five years into each body of work. The series would catch, become popular and really begin to sell at the exact moment I was done. When that feeling hit, the idea of continuing to paint similar images simply to supply market demand felt akin to factory work. I would move on to a new ground zero, embrace a fresh concept and hope for a new following. To have a more viable vocation, what I needed was an idea that would stay engaging past that mysterious five year mark… and beyond.

A new, intriguing direction wasn’t emerging, even though I kept practicing this new way to soften and blend acrylics with cheese cloth. There I was master-painting away, day after day, while frustration mounted. I was stutter stepping when I needed the concept equivalent of a giant leap. I needed wings.

And then I got Paris. — End of Chapter 11

Eight years earlier I had helped a young junkie through early recovery. One thing that helped channel his jittery, frenetic, nutso-tweaking energy was to meticulously cut pictures out of magazines and paste them into collages. He called it ‘Frankensteining’. By 2002, cut & paste collage images were popping up in group shows all over… with and…

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Mernie Buchanan
Mernie Buchanan

Written by Mernie Buchanan

Seeking sunnier landscapes I left Woodstock NY for Tucson where I'll teach painting & finish a scifi novel. Images are my originals. Links at mernie.com

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