Short For Arthur have been dabbling in surrealism. The Moncton-based four-piece are spelling out their namesakes with a nod to the heavyweights of art with “Hanging Painting” as they take a deeper look at the world around us – showing that art is in everything we see and do.
“The song is about how there’s more to life than what meets the eye when we choose to take a deeper look at things, we can find beauty and meaning, or ‘art’ in everything,” says vocalist and keyboardist Jordan Best. “We are all walking sculptures. Everything around us is a painting. Every sound is music. Each of us is living our own storybook and together we’re living one giant collective storybook. Our mind is the paintbrush and our life is the canvas.”
With a playfully cavalier sing-song track that sounds like it might be the American-version of Joe Dassin covering The Kinks, Short For Arthur double-down on the imagery by bringing some famous paintings to life. The video recreates the melting clocks of Salvador Dali’s The Persistence of Memory, Grant Wood’s American Gothic makes a roadside appearance, Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa of La Joconde serves up some espresso while Vincent Van Gogh himself gifts an ear at a birthday party before we’re engaging Salvador Dali in a stare-off, before resolving into a game of Dogs Playing Poker à la Cassius Marcellus Coolidge.
The foray through art history culminates in a message that the band convey clearly through the song’s lyrics: “I think I know what it’s like to be a human painting, It goes to show that there’s more than the eyes can see.”
Closing with the band, our protagonist, dogsuits and all, captured within the frame of a painting. As the band points out, the character, having sojourned through this inescapable surrealistic environment, has adopted an attitude of “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em,” while proving that there has always been more to the picture than what meets the eye.