About Masterpiece and Trevor McSHane
The Vision
Trevor McShane is also the lawyer, Neville Johnson. Several years ago, Neville was in a contentious lawsuit over a musical composition with Jeff Sanders, a lawyer from New York. They had a pleasant conversation, and Jeff mentioned he would go down the Colorado river on a raft with his twin daughters. The day before a big hearing on the case in Los Angeles, Neville got word that Jeff had passed away at the hotel. Trevor/Neville understands he was a relatively young man. This caused Neville to recall the famous quote of UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden that we “must make each day your masterpiece.“ Neville wrote the biography of Coach Wooden, “The John Wooden Pyramid of Success.” Using this quote, Neville honored the life and spirit of Jeff Sanders in the song “Masterpiece.”
We are all here for short for such a short time. We’ve all got to make the most of every day.
THE TRUE TREVOR McSHANE STORY
Trevor McShane has become somewhat of a legend in Southern California. Finally, this is the true story of Trevor who was created in 2000 as the nom de plume of Neville Johnson upon the release of his debut album, First Love, Last Love. Neville had then and does now have a very successful law practice and did not “want my lawyer status affected by my musical endeavors, plus I wanted the music to be taken on its own.” Meet Trevor McShane. T4Re: the name, Trevor’s forefathers came from Ireland and their name was McShane, which they changed to Johnson when they were in Boston because of prejudice against the Irish. (Mc” is “son” and “Shane” is “John in Gaelic.)
Norton Wisdon
NORTON WISDOM calls himself an anti-war activist before an artist or performer, and following his studies at Berkeley, he also had a whole career as a decorated and legendary coastal lifeguard.
Despite being a student and lifelong practitioner of painting, he’s spent the last decade or so focusing on his performance art, taking his live-painting improv act on the road in collaborations with musicians like Banyan, Lili Haydn, Nels Cline and Llyn Foulkes. But the political and frequently sexed-up pictures resulting from the live shows are just the most public part of Wisdom’s story. He’s dedicated his career to exploring the infinite possibilities of an abstract structure, the proscenium/rectangle and the way its five-part shape yields endless variations. Since the late 1960s, Wisdom has been tirelessly, unendingly rendering this shape in pure color, expressively distressed surfaces, and collages made with images both found and cannibalized from his own canvases. This is in pursuit of a practice he first undertook way back up in the Bay Area, when he experienced an epiphany in which he envisioned a solo, steady, private studio practice as a form of peaceful, Buddhist-inflected social protest. He still paints every day.
Norton Wisdom
Artist, Performer, Painter, Activist
Wisdom is a state of mind. Norton Wisdom lives beyond NoWisdom. Supporter of peace and expert mesmerizer, to find him or track his ever changing adventures is, as his artwork, continually moving. He travels the world gracing the planet with his constantly changing music inspired imagery through the live talents of musicians around the globe.
Our History
Masterpiece is the Inspiration for Life