Rock and Roll All Night

I spent most of my life up until the end of high school wanting to be a rock star.
More specifically I wanted to be Bono from U2

Seriously that's what I looked like at age 19, or something close to that.
I have always been a fan of rock and roll and I spent a good deal of my life studying its history.
My biological father worked in radio during the 1960's and was working for Columbia Records when he passed way too early at the age of 30.
I am pretty sure that was a big influence on my infatuation with music.
Not to mention I grew up in a musical theater family. Lots of singing and dancing and performing growing up.
Okay so how does this all relate to my paintings?
I have spent a lot of time drawing analogies between my painting work and music and it's history.
I like to think of my work as one of my favorite genres of music, punk rock. But I have not always been that way.
I remember just recently I was showing some incredibly crazy awesome Universal Monsters artwork done by another artist to a friend of mine. I was really bummed. I thought the attention to detail and clean lines was so much better than what I do.
My friend was kind enough to point out, "Well yeah, but that's not what you do. I don't come to your work for that. Sure I like Led Zepplin, and Pink Floyd or Rush for there intricate detail. That is not you. You are my art equivalent of the Ramones, or The Misfits. I just want the raw energy, the cool subject matter and the over the top lighting and color."

I guess it should come as no surprise then that my only rock and roll painting is of Joey Ramone.
Punk just speaks to me.
Even this year with my 13 Nights of Halloween I make it through with rock and roll analogies.
I love every painting in my 13 Nights series. But lets face it, I also realize out of all 13 they are all not going to be monster hits with my audience. Just as its hard to make a rock album with every song being a huge monster hit. 13 Nights of Halloween is my rock album. The rest of the year is singles and B-sides.
Not all of my paintings are going to be "Blitzkrieg Bop" or "I want to be Sedated"
But it is a collective work that resonates with my thoughts and feelings at the time.
Much like many teenagers I never got to live out my dreams of being a rock star. Fear and resistance once again sidetrack my dream.
But I jam really hard when I paint and try to remember that not all bands or music styles are the same.
Like art you make music by listening to your soul.