If There's

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a painting with writing or graffiti or cursive in it - I'm there. . .

So there we were in Old City, Philadelphia - overcast, kinda drizzly (my kind of day). We had seen almost every single gallery in that area and were nigh unto sensory overload. We came out of Snyderman-Works Gallery and thought we were done and about to head back to the bus and supper and home - when someone spied the most unusual thing up under a tree a couple doors down. Awww, another gallery. But how unique and different and cool. It drew us all in, just like a magical story. The Bahdeebahdu Gallery is magical. This picture doesn't give you a clue and words cannot describe the wonderful time we had there. What a perfect end to our day. You must check out this hilarious, wonderful, fantastic Gallery that is different from anything you've seen.
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First Painting

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This is the first painting I ever sold. Moved here from Georgia (USA) in 2000 and up until then had never sold a painting (never actually tried). Well, when I was in my 20's living in Harrisburg, PA, another artist tried to take me under his wing and got me into a group show where I exhibited two drawings in cheap, surplus store frames. On the day of the opening I overheard some people discussing my work, but it was all about the cheap frames. I skulked out of there and never showed again till I moved here.
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This is titled "St Jacquelin" - because to a lot of people of that time thought she was at least royalty if not a true saint. And it's one of the first newspaper paintings; an ad from the NYTimes for a show at the Met or something. Had a hard time doing her halo - looks like a hat brim . . . . Hung it in a group show here at the mall. Right off a man came up and bought it. That felt good.
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Newspaper Paintings

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Of all my different styles, it's the "newspaper paintings" that are the most popular.
You gesso your canvas - when dry, apply fresh gesso and apply your newspaper page. The wetter it is the more bubbles that will appear - not so wet, it's easier to coax those bubbles out. The tooth from the gesso gets into the paper and creates a nice velvety surface that just begs to be drawn on. Pastels(chalky) and pastel pencils are used to color the images and then I "fix it" with Krylon Matte spray (clear). Then apply Golden's(or Liquitex) Matte Medium which will give you a fresh, porous new surface for pastels or paint. . . . and repeat - pastels, spray, matte medium - for lots of wonderful layering.

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The above painting -"Queen Tut & The Pouty Prince" was an absolute hoot to make. Started out with the 2, full page ads and applied them with toned, matte medium on a gessoed canvas. Colored the guy on the left realistically, but when I got to the lady I loosened up quite a bit. (I can only take so much realism) haha
So here was this nice composition with two colored heads and the red bar which says "between the two of you". Bor-ing. Then the fun began. Gave her a crown of Naples Yellow, squirted right out of the tube; then a beard and glasses. After giving him a silver chain with dangling heart, I squirted a couple of other hearts and arrows - all straight out of the tube and all the while laughing myself silly. THIS, was fun ! I had done another painting titled "Queen Tut", but now she had a pouty prince - it all made sense to me and kept me in stitches.
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I've been amazed by all the different reactions to this simple (and to me hilarious) painting. Someone thought it was racial with sexual overtones, another person thought it was about gay marriage, supposing the person on the right was a guy in drag. It was in an exhibit at the local mall and I noticed a gentleman studying it for the longest time. When questioned, he paid me the nicest compliment by saying that he regularly did the big Art Museums of Europe and they had all become quite predictable and boring, but to him this was fresh and captivating. WOW. Suddenly I felt validated and honored..
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