I received the book as a gift from my wife for Christmas and as soon as I opened the cover and saw a picture of Josh Agle aka SHAG sitting in his studio in his underwear looking sullen with a glass of Jameson's in the foreground I knew I was in for a treat. As I thumbed through the book and saw the dark and muted colors, people throwing themselves into pits, and the mix of characters from different periods in his paintings I began to feel that while these paintings were not ' typical ' SHAG, they were something to behold and take in. Especially after the intro picture set the tone.
It seems, and based on the epilogue of the book written by his brother, that the SHAG a lot of us have come to know is in a transforming phase of his career, he has begun a chrysalis of sorts and while still using the same style that he is known for, he is doing what every real artist does, he is growing. The work in this book is dark, disturbing, haunting, and interesting at the same time. SHAG is basically telling the world that the old SHAG is dead, and a new artist is emerging, one that is changing, growing, and making art for the reason any artist makes art, because they are driven to.