October 23, 2015

"He lives simply, on 'the little bit of money' he inherited, and paints whatever he feels like."

"The canvases by his bathtub are of the 20 children gunned down three years ago at Sandy Hook Elementary School. 'The minute they got shot, I was crying and painting,' he says. 'I was going to paint just one girl and one boy, but then I felt guilty. What about the fat kid?' So he painted them all, grouping the portraits in one giant frame and showing it at Villanova University, where, he says, only three people came out on a snowy night to see it. He offered the paintings to Sandy Hook as a memorial, he says, but was rebuffed: 'So f–k ’em. If someone offers me $10 and is willing to hang it and respect it, I’ll give it to ’em.'"

Said Chuck Connelly, quoted in a NY Post article with a somewhat confusing headline "Inside the secret world of Scorsese’s art world nemesis." Connelly was the model for the raging artist played by Nick Nolte in Martin Scorsese's contribution to the film "New York Stories."

He was part of the 1980s art scene but withdrew, oddly, and now has 3,000 paintings hoarded at home.

9 comments:

MadisonMan said...

One more misunderstood Artiste.

Beach Brutus said...

"I'm a retired investor, living on a pension."

tim in vermont said...

Do you think he paints pictures of the tens of thousands of children blinded by lack of vitamin A who could have had their sight saved by GMOs?

What about those who needlessly die of malaria because of irrational regulation of DDT?

Does he paint portraits of all the refugees from Hillary's adventure in Libya who drowned in the Mediterranean this year?

Or does he suffer from tunnel vision and a complete lack of imagination?

Beach Brutus said...

The school should buy it and hang it where everyone entering the school has to pass by it -- and all those who favor so-called "Gun Free School Zones" should be made to bow down and do penitence before it.

madAsHell said...

I saw Nick Nolte at LAX back in January. Talk about ridden hard, and put away wet. He did not look well.

Robert Cook said...

I saw a documentary about him years ago. I like his art quite a lot.

trumpintroublenow said...

Wonder why Sandy Hook wasn't interested. Touching painting.

BN said...

This guy is somebody. It'll be worth something some day.

I'll take it. I'll hang it. Where's the contact info?

BN said...

And by somebody, I mean, "somebody."