The life of an artist is complex. You develop a skill, hone it and perfect it yet that is not the whole story. As John Wellington points out in our recent conversation, there are numerous artworks of the Madonnna and Child, endless versions on the same theme yet amongst all of these Bernini’s stands out. Is it simply skill? Or is it somehow a devotional fidelity to one’s own poetic vision? How does that same devotion translate when taken out of the context of religion? Is the ideation of beauty sullied by the representation of one’s own personal ideals? Verging on the obsessive (a necessary trait if one is to produce a body of work) Wellington’s totemic imaginary worlds have been the subject of solo and group exhibitions from New York City to Paris, France. They have been shown at the Centre Georges Pompidou and most recently at the now defunct but memorably dynamic Lodge Gallery on the Lower East Side of Manhattan (Temple Tomb Fortress Ruin, 2017). We explore his youth, growing up in NYC in the late 60’s and early 70’s Support the show (https://paypal.me/artgrindpodcast?locale.x=en_US)