John Mellencamp Surprising Fans With This Amazing Talent
Most of the world knows John Mellencamp for being a great musician. But it turns out that he’s a pretty darn good painter too.
Dan’s Papers is a lifestyle publication based out of the East Coast area. This month, on November 17, they released the 62nd volume of the magazine. And the picture that was on the cover immediately got a lot of attention from the public. Partially because of the unique talent shown in the artwork. And partially because of who the art was attributed to.
The artwork shows a neo-expressionist painting of a young women with her hand on her chin. At the bottom of the cover photo is the caption “Art By John Mellencamp”. It turns out that Mellencamp has been dabbling in art since he still had the Cougar in his name. The particular piece of artwork on the magazine cover is titled Kiki. And was done out of oil paints, house paints and charcoal, Dan’s Papers revealed.
Mellencamp first starting painting in the 1980’s, according to the art gallery that represents him.
Through an interview with Avalon Ashley Bellos, Dan’s Papers said that he was heavily inspired by German expressionists. Bellos is the gallery director for an East Coast based art gallery called DTR Modern Gallery, which represents Mellencamp’s work.
Bellos told Dan’s Papers that Kiki was the first painting that Mellencamp showed to the gallery owner, Ted Vassilev. Even though he had been talking with the Jack & Diane singer for almost a decade about displaying his art. It finally came to fruition this year, when Vassilev visited Mellencamp’s compound to procure the artist’s collection.
And Kiki is just one of many paintings Mellencamp has contributed to the gallery. His artwork is mostly of humans, and shows a depth of emotion quite difficult for many to capture in a painting. You can see all of his art on the DTR Modern Gallery website.
