Hank

This source material was a cartoon of Bluto with both of his eyes closed so I opened one of his eyes and painted it in the style of a mannequin eye that I learned how to paint when I was employed in a mannequin factory in LIC in 2002. That's where I initially learned how to paint realistically and I'm grateful for that job as I could not afford art school and never finished college. I wanted to make this painting as an hommage to that job and I named it "Hank" as a reference to Henry Miller who inspired me as a teenager to follow my heart's desire. When I was 8 years old I told my working class parents that I wanted to move to NYC and be an artist when I grew up, they told me it would never work as you have to come from a wealthy family to be an artist and frankly I'm glad they told me that as it just fanned the flames  burning inside me and increased my drive to carve out a career for myself as an artist.

Evidence

Oil paint over a pre-existing commercially produced, thickly textured, horizontal painting of Calla lillies. I was thinking about the way Sigmar Polke and David Salle overlay seemingly disparite images and this was an opportunity to try that.

March 22

So exactly 2 years ago, March 22, 2018 I was taking the subway home from my studio where I had been painting Bluto all day and I looked up and Bluto was sitting across from me staring at me. I wanted to talk to him, I wanted to ask him to pose for me or ask him on a date but I was too dumbfounded so I pulled out my camera and took a picture he stared right at me and didn’t look away..This painting is just called “March 22, 2018” 18 x 24 oil on canvas. It has been hanging in my living room ever since...

Bluto Poseiden

This was kind of a breakthrough for me in my project of teaching myself how to paint. I started painting Bluto in January 2017 as a way to teach myself painting ( I didn't go to art school) By keeping the subject matter the same it allowed me to try all kinds of styles..