Love is a Rose and Life is a Canvas

My first three passions in life, after my kids, are genealogical history, vintage Americana, and what I feel is great music. All of those passions come together in my paintings.

I spent most of the 90s following the grunge and punk scene in the Twin Cities. Essentially, going to see original bands every night throughout the Minneapolis and St. Paul region. My girlfriends and I spent hundreds of hours going from music bar to music bar following the best acts in the upper Midwest. On any night you could find us at the Turf Club, Uptown Bar (now gone), Cabooze, 400 Bar (also gone), and of course, First Ave.

Plus dozens and dozens of now lost and forgotten dives and corner music clubs. Live original music? We were there.

We were like postmen, “neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night” kept us from following Soul Asylum, Jayhawks, Honeydogs, Trip Shakespeare, The Suburbs, The Phones, Blue Up and dozens of other bands from location to location across the Twin Cities.

And, like the clubs, dozens and dozens of great, but now lost and forgotten, musicians and bands.

Sidebar: Because of the lyrics this is mostly a NSFW video

In our free time we shopped at thrift stores and that is when I started picking up vintage leather jackets. I thought “I could paint these up and use them as my canvases.”  I researched paints and dyes and found a great dye that I could brush on and they would be highly wearable and not crack.  This was long before YouTube and the internet so the research was done old school.

As such, for several years I painted original themed surrealism and abstracts on a broad range of canvases including on my vintage leather coats and boots. At one time I had 30 or 40 coats I gave away or sold.  I even had one stolen when I was a student in Germany.

A few weeks ago my Partner was digging through the garage when he stumbled upon the last five of these jackets. He brought them into the house and he took pictures of me wearing them. He then uploaded them to Facebook, Google+ and a few other of my Vintage Painter social media sites.

It was interesting to see people’s reactions.

Sidebar: Yes, I know there is only four of the five here. My Partner wants me to keep the fifth one for a while. He has some plans for it.

Coat: “Innocence”

Coat: “Bent Man”

Coat: “Angel Cat”

 

Most people who have met me over the last 10 years assume I only paint vintage and Americana themes. They never thought about what else I paint or have painted. I generally only show my Vintage Painter work publicly and am very protective of my brand and my Vision. Right now that is how I want to be known but I have a large collection of other work that is in my basement and in my studio.

The hand-dyed and painted vintage leather coats were amongst them.

As an artist I am very Vision oriented. When you look at the jackets, each one is very original.  I let the jackets speak to me and they would tell me what they wanted painted.  I’m not sure non-creatives can completely understand what that means, and I’m not sure how else to explain it, but that is how it works.

When I found a beautiful tan fringed leather jacket, I instantly knew it would become my “Love is a Rose,” Neil Young jacket.

This jacket features three of my loves – surrealism, dogs and Mr. Neil Young and his song Love is a Rose.

I guess that is four things.

Sidebar: This video is completely safe for work.

Nevertheless, a few weeks after my Partner posted the pictures online, the Neil Young Fan Club contacted me and they wanted to write a little post about the coat.

I was honored.

After some thought, I’ve decided to sell the coats – no reason to hang onto them – and try to do some good at the same time. The first coat looking for a new home will be the “Love is a Rose” coat.

I’m selling it through my eBay store with a starting minimum bid of $75. Of that, 25% will be going to Neil Young’s personal charity, The Bridge School. The school offers an innovative program for educating children with severe speech and physical impairments.

Depending on the response, over the next several months I will be selling the other coats too. Hopefully, they will find a good home. Please help me spread the word. Below are some pictures of the other coats.

My Partner has already started to dig though some of my other art relics. It will be interesting to see what else pops up.

“Love is a Rose”

Click to visit the auction on eBay

The Other Coats

Coat: “Innocence”

Coat: “Bent Man”

Coat: “Angel Cat”

Coat: “Bent Man”

Coat: “Angel Cat”

Coat: “Angel Cat”

Coat: “Angel Cat”

Coat: “Bent Man”

Coat: “Angel Cat”

Coat: “Innocence”

Coat: “Innocence”

Coat: “Bent Man”

The story matters

Among other things, my partner would argue their are entirely too many birch trees in this painting by John William Waterhouse. While you are at it check out the very cool Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

I have always been an artist.

…and as an artist I’ve always been drawn to portraiture.  Not the easiest discipline in a culture that currently values contemporary, plein air, botanical, abstract and minimalist styles. “How many paintings and photos of birch trees,” whispers my partner in my ear as we visit art shows and galleries looking at regurgitated and tired ideas, “does the world need before it becomes a cliche?!”

I don’t have that problem because I am faithful to my Vision. As such, I am driven to create in a style that evolves on an internal linear path and not on an ad-hoc cultural trend line. I paint to an internal sense of classicism and not to culture’s external faddishness.  This commitment has the additional benefit of resulting in

paintings that are uniquely mine.

I have an evolving style. A style I own. I see. I create. I embrace. I follow.

As such, trying to stay rooted in what I am moved to create often conflicts with what others think I should be doing.

For example, I had a gallery owner suggest I just paint only objects and leave the people out because objects are easier to sell. She encourages me to paint so that what I create matches a couch or a carpet or someone’s lifestyle. She wants me to paint to a formula.

My sepia painting “Working the Fields”.

In other words, paint a motorcycle. Paint a landscape. Paint a tractor. Paint a birch tree.

I was at an art show recently listening to my partner talk to the man next to us. He was bragging about driving his wife from Washington DC to San Diego to sell at an art show. She was out of new paintings so on the drive the stopped at Michael’s, bought some paints and canvases and as he drove she sat in the back of the van “painting”. She “created” fifty-five new “pieces”.

They figured she averaged nineteen minutes per painting. She had a formula and she stuck to it. She wasn’t painting for a Vision she was painting for production. A process he admitted to embracing. It is about money and not art.

The irony is when buyers asked about his wife’s work he gave them some dog-and-pony story about how she spends weeks creating colors and images.

Just talking about formula art makes me queasy.

It is the difference between music created by the Honeydogs and the New Kids on the Block. There is a market for both types of music but I know where I will spend my energy.

My Vision would never let me do formula art – or listen to the New Kids on the Block.

It would break me first. I need the stories to feed my creative side. I need the people to give what I create depth. Otherwise, it is simply a motorcycle, a landscape, a tractor or – HORRORS OF HORRORS – a birch tree.