Beauty Is Embarrassing

Tennessee-born cartoonist and artist Wayne White is profiled in this documentary from director Neil Berkeley. White is probably best known for his Emmy Award-winning set design on the Saturday-morning psychedelic rampage that was Pee Wee's Playhouse, which ran from 1986-1990. White's goofy but introspective personality dominates here—an easygoing southern charm that mixes swimmingly with bohemian hippie defiance and absurdist sense of humor, all of which is reflected in his artwork. Although White enjoyed significant early success in music videos for rock stars like Peter Gabriel and Smashing Pumpkins—and had a crazy stint in Hollywood as an overworked art director and animator—his real quest is to fulfill his dream job of sitting alone in a room making art. With the help of big-time designer Todd Oldham, White manages—late in his career—to achieve conceptual prominence in the usually humorless, antiseptic art world. Using crappy thrift-store landscape art as a backdrop for his 3D “word paintings,” White makes a name for himself with art that combines his ribald barroom sense of humor and real talent for illustration. White himself is such a force of nature that the gushing talking-head praise here from luminaries like Matt Groening, Mark Mothersbaugh, and Paul Reubens seems almost redundant. The abundant DVD extras include audio commentary by Berkeley and White, deleted scenes, a slideshow of White's artwork, and a music video. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (M. Sandlin)