"I draw a lot, that’s really the beginning of it all. I draw in bed, usually watching a Charlie Chan movie."

"The drawings are very small. I’ll put them on a copier and blow them up to get a general picture of what they’ll look like at a certain scale. And then I start building the models at full scale, at six inches max. I can envision things, to a degree, three-dimensionally. I’m not saying I have visions, but some little idea will come popping into my head. It might be based on something I’ve seen, and subconsciously it finds its way onto paper."

From "An Artist Who Makes Irreverent, and Pocket-Size, Sculptures/Ron Nagle helped pave the way for clay artists to be taken seriously — but he still has a sense of humor. Ahead of a new solo show, he discusses his work, his dog and his TV habits" (NYT Style Magazine). Nagle's new exhibit is called "Getting to No." The NYT describes his sculptures as "otherworldly... pastel stucco planes... glossy half-moon shapes, suggesting animal tails, chewed-up wads of gum, bare tree limbs, erect genitalia or excrement...." We're also told "he’s credited for writing iconic songs on albums by Jefferson Airplane, Sammy Hagar and Barbra Streisand."

What Jefferson Airplane song is by Ron Nagle? I looked it up. It's "Please Come Back" (on the album "Flight Log"). I couldn't find "Please Come Back" on YouTube. Sorry. Not to be confused with "Coming Back to Me" (one of the very best Jefferson Airplane songs).

Anyway, it's funny for a man of today, in the warm spotlight of a NYT style piece, to freely and unnecessarily associate himself with Charlie Chan, the 1930s/40s fictional character who is "the subject of controversy," as Wikipedia puts it:

[Some critics] argue that Chan, while portrayed positively in some ways, is not on a par with white characters, but a "benevolent Other" who is "one-dimensional." The films' use of white actors to portray East Asian characters indicates the character's "absolute Oriental Otherness;" the films were only successful as "the domain of white actors who impersonated heavily-accented masters of murder mysteries as well as purveyors of cryptic proverbs. Chan's character "embodies the stereotypes of Chinese Americans, particularly of males: smart, subservient, effeminate." Chan is representative of a model minority, the good stereotype that counters a bad stereotype: "Each stereotypical image is filled with contradictions: the bloodthirsty Indian is tempered with the image of the noble savage; the bandido exists along with the loyal sidekick; and Fu Manchu is offset by Charlie Chan." However, Fu Manchu's evil qualities are presented as inherently Chinese, while Charlie Chan's good qualities are exceptional; "Fu represents his race; his counterpart stands away from the other Asian Hawaiians."...

In June 2003, the Fox Movie Channel cancelled a planned Charlie Chan Festival, soon after beginning restoration for cablecasting, after a special-interest group protested. Fox reversed its decision two months later, and on 13 September 2003, the first film in the festival was aired on Fox. The films, when broadcast on the Fox Movie Channel, were followed by round-table discussions by prominent East Asians in the American entertainment industry, led by George Takei, most of whom were against the films....

Some modern critics, particularly East Asian-Americans, dismiss the Charlie Chan character as "bovine" and "asexual", allowing "white America … [to be] securely indifferent about us as men." Charlie Chan's good qualities are the product of what Frank Chin and Jeffery Chan call "racist love", arguing that Chan is a model minority and "kissass".... Yunte Huang manifests an ambivalent attitude, stating that in the USA, Chan "epitomizes the racist heritage and the creative genius of this nation’s culture."...

Chan's character has also come under fire for "nuggets of fortune cookie Confucius" and the "counterfeit proverbs" which became so widespread in popular culture. The Biggers novels did not introduce the "Confucius say" proverbs, which were added in the films, but one novel features Chan remarking: "As all those who know me have learned to their distress, Chinese have proverbs to fit every possible situation." Huang Yunte gives as examples "Tongue often hang man quicker than rope," "Mind, like parachute, only function when open," and "Man who flirt with dynamite sometime fly with angels." He argues, however, that these "colorful aphorisms" display "amazing linguistic acrobatic skills." Like the African American "signifying monkey," Huang continues, Chan "imparts as much insult as wisdom."

Here's a good collection of Charlie Chan clips. Judge for yourself: