Happy Retro Tuesday! The Fest for Beatles Fans is this weekend...are you going??My love for The Beatles started around the age of thirteen or fourteen. Before that I was a huge fan of The Monkees and basically in love with Davy Jones. Because I collected so much Monkees paraphernalia, I actually owe my Beatles fandom to them!
My collection of stuff includes video footage of Davy Jones pre-Monkees. Davy began his career on the stage when he starred as the Artful Dodger in the Broadway musical Oliver. Coincidentally, the cast of Oliver performed on the same Ed Sullivan show as the Beatles' first appearance in February of 1964!
The Fab Four sang the now classic songs "All My Lovin'," "Til There Was You," "She Loves You," "I Saw Her Standing There" and "I Wanna Hold Your Hand." So, naturally, loving that genre of music, I started collecting Beatles posters to decorate my room. Posters turned to collectible records and watches and eventually their faces showed up in my art. These 4 pieces above date way back to when I was about 15 or 16. In retrospect they are very primitive paintings, and notice there is no gray shading…just black and white and the background colors. Each painting is 16” x 20” which was an average size for me when I was in high school.
I know I am not alone in saying that the Beatles continue to be not only one of my favorite musical groups to listen to but also the subject of some of my favorite paintings.
