“I’m a middle-aged man who’s living out a 5-year-old’s fantasy,” says Wayne White, the extraordinary artist known for creating the puppets in “Pee-wee’s Playhouse.”
But how did this Chattanooga native get into that art form? That story is chronicled in the documentary “Beauty is Embarrassing,” an award-winning film about White’s life by Neil Berkeley.
“Beauty is Embarrassing” will be shown at Hunter Museum of Art, 10 Bluff View, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 24, in conjunction with “Thrill After Thrill: Thirty Years of Wayne White,” the exhibit of White’s work currently on view at Hunter.
The documentary reveals the highs and lows of a commercial artist struggling to find balance between his work and his art. Acting as narrator, White guides viewers through his life using moments from his life and his art. Art pieces are drawn from performances at venues in Tennessee, New York and Los Angeles.
The New York Times said, “The creativity grows like kudzu in ‘Beauty is Embarrassing,’ Neil Berkeley’s enlightening and often hilarious portrait of the Los Angeles artist Wayne White.”