dreXeL's Blog
Thoughts, Musings, Ramblings, Etc...
Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly
"Buddy Holly"
16" x 20" Mixed media on canvas
One of my series of 8 artists/musicians whose life affected mine in some way, and who died tragically before their time. What's amazing about Buddy Holly is that he only lived to be 22. Think about that! EVERYONE knows who Buddy Holly is. EVERYONE knows what his music sounds like. Yet he only had a few short years on this earth. That's how amazing, special and influential he was as a musician.
A few little facts you may or may not know:
1. The song "American Pie" by Don McLean, was written about the 1959 plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, as well as Ritchie Valens and Jiles Perry Richardson, R. (The Big Bopper). The album was dedicated to Buddy Holly.
2. On Holly's 58th birthday, Weezer released their single, "Buddy Holly". Sweet, huh? I thought so.
Janis Joplin
Janice Joplin
Original Painting Is Available
$10,000
"Janis"
16" x 36" Mixed media on canvas
One of my series of artists/musicians whose lives affected mine in some way, and who died tragically before their time. Janis Joplin was called many things, "The Queen of Psychedelic Soul" and "Pearl" by her friends. If you've ever watched her live or seen videos, you know her sound was so raw and soulful, and you just knew she meant every word she sang. She died of a heroin overdose in her hotel room at the age of 27, just 16 days after the death of her close friend, Jimi Hendrix. The winter of 1970 was a sad time for Rock & Roll.
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Original Painting Is Available
$10,000
"Basquiat"
16" x 36" Mixed media on canvas
One of my series of artists/musicians who died tragically before their time, and whose life somehow affected my own. Jean-Michel Basquiat is what I consider one of the forefathers of the current "Street Art" scene/movement. As a genre, his work tends to be categorized as "neo-expressionism" along side of Julian Schnabel and others. What's tragic for ME, in addition to the obvious...heroin overdose at age 27, was that when I was in college he, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, were names I heard thrown around CONSTANTLY. They were local artists, whatever. It wasn't history then, it was just life. It was current events, most of which I was too wasted to really care about at all. By the time I was old enough and sober enough to appreciate these people for their influence on art, culture and history, they were all dead.
Basquiat was an amazing artist, who was just getting started. His work is SO important in NYC right now, if an old building is found to have a Basquiat-painted wall on it, it can't be destroyed. That wall has to be preserved.
As it should be.
Nico
Nico
Original Painting Is Available
$3000
“Nico”
16″ x 36″ mixed media on canvas.
Nico was a german singer, songwriter, model and actress. She sang with The Velvet Underground for a little while in the 60s, and was in films by Andy Warhol and Federico Fellini, among others. Basically she hung out with all the cool kids: John Cale, Lou Reed, Andy Warhol, Patti Smith, Jim Morrison. Well I imagine Jim Morrison was cool during his more coherent moments. Anyway, the thing I always felt that was tragic about Nico, which is why I added her to this series, is that she was a heroin addict in her earlier years. She eventually got off heroin, which is really, really difficult. And really, really impressive. So she finally DOES that. Then a few years later she's riding her bike, has a heart attack, hits her head when she falls, and dies of cerebral hemmorhage. People die, it happens. I know this. It just seemed like she should have been given at least a few more years or something.
