Over the course of his 30-year career, Chattanooga native Wayne White has worn many hats: He expanded the imaginations of young minds in the late ’80s as a set and puppet designer for Pee-wee’s Playhouse, and further shaped the cultural landscape through his production design work on music videos such as Peter Gabriel’s Big Time and the Smashing Pumpkins’ Tonight, Tonight.
His Southern roots are probably most apparent in his more recent work in the fine arts, in which he is known for taking the pastoral landscapes of thrift-store style paintings and adding irreverent and humorous phrases in giant block letters, creating a surreal blend of painting and pop culture.
Through a collaboration with Brooklyn’s Flavor Paper, he recently added award-winning wallpaper designer to his extensive resume. At the International Contemporary Furniture Fair global design fair in New York City this spring, White’s “Waynetopia” design won the ICFF Editors’ Award for Best Wallcovering. The design incorporates block-lettered phrases into a fantastic scene reminiscent of a 19th century landscape, originally a mural he painted on the wall of the home he shares with wife Mimi Pond, who is also a major cultural contributor whose many credits include writing the first episode of The Simpsons.
White is also a sculptor, banjo player and the subject of the biographical documentary Beauty is Embarrassing, parts of which are filmed in the Scenic City.
While in the city for a showing of the 2012 film, he went to dinner with Shaking Ray Levi Society founders Bob Stagner and the late Dennis Palmer, who passed away in 2013. They ended up hatching the plan for the upcoming “Wayne-O-Rama,” a yearlong indoor installation that celebrates the city’s history and notable figures through giant puppets, interactive sculptures and dioramas on a massive scale.