Chris Giffin - the Now and Then clock artist

Chris Giffin with some of her work in 2006.

 

As much as I dislike the front cover of Now and Then,  I think the artwork on the back cover is really interesting so last week I decided to find out what it all means.   I am so glad that I did!   The clock was made by an artist named Chris Giffin.  She is currently retired, but in 1997 some of the clocks that she made were for sale in Providence, Rhode Island.   George and Olivia were in Providence that year because their son, Dhani was going to school at Brown.   And so George bought a clock that said, "Now and Then" on it as well as some other pieces by Giffin.   I can't help but wonder -- why did George pick out this clock?   Did it have anything to do with the song called "Now and Then" that his former bandmate, John Lennon had written and he had attempted to record with Paul and Ringo just two years earlier?   

Anyhow -- read Olivia's story about the clock and note that originally the clock did NOT have a photograph of The Beatles at the bottom, but a photograph of a city.   The Beatles were added just for the album cover with the artist's permission.   I bet in a million years she never would have thought her art would have been part of a Beatles song!