Hit or Myth: Myth-Making and Myth-Busting

David Bates art and Roger Daltry of the WHO

A few years back, I was at a David Bates opening at Talley Dunn Gallery in Dallas, and I remarked to David that this sculpture reminded me of a rock 'n' roll singer with a microphone. He immediately said, "Thanks. You just ruined it for me." He had based this primordial image on a "nature man" wrestling with a snake. He was in deep, deep, deep into his MYTH-MAKING phase, while I was still in our previous, shared MYTH-BUSTING mode of the seventies and eighties. We used to joke around about our art like that, all the time. But NOW it was a clear-cut moment of, "open mouth, insert foot." WHO are you? -- We won't get fooled again, no, no, no...