Stickman
"I Feel Just Like a Rockstar" (Beethoven / Post Malone)
Limited Edition Canvas Giclee
"I Feel Just Like a Rockstar" (Beethoven / Post Malone)
Limited Edition Canvas Giclee
The first layer of this piece is a commentary on the evolution of popular musicians. A 'where we were versus where we are' mash up of two true geniuses.
It takes a lot for a hip hop or pop star to grab my attention, but something about Post Malone caught me right from the first time I heard “White Iverson”. This cat just hit different for me. Since then, I’ve seen him transform himself into the most diverse artists on the scene. In doing so, he started to gravitate to some of my favorite rock icons. From duets with Ozzy, covering Sabbath, and teaming up with Travis Barker for an epic lockdown basement concert, he showed not only his rock and roll chops but also a guitar ability that had even YouTube virtuosos commending his skills. In today’s music industry he is as close to a renaissance man as there is.
When I embarked on possible concepts to honor Posty, I stumbled across a post that stated, “Post Malone looks like Beethoven on crack”. This concept was instantly born. With the recent statue concepts I’ve been playing with, this mashup of Beethoven with Posty’s face tattoos fit like a Tetris piece.
About Stickman
Trevor "Stickman" Stickel specializes in musically based portraits that capture legendary moments, powerful ideas and raw emotion. His work is described as gritty-yet-fresh, complex-yet-simple. Graduating from a Jekyll and Hyde influence early in his career in which he divided his time between family portraits and design work on helmets and Harleys - Trevor had the epiphany to combine both styles while reading "According to the Rolling Stones". Two weeks later he finished his first canvas portrait of Mick Jagger that would thrust him into a different realm of the art world an aptly titled it "Please allow me to introduce myself".
The Mission
The idea or "mission" behind my artwork was to create an artistic tribute to something (music) and to the people (musicians) that have had a tremendous impact on me and basically shaped my world. Historically these tributes have been limited to photos/posters that have adorned the bedroom walls of teenagers and dorm rooms throughout adolescence. I wanted to create a style of art that brings these iconic figures back into our life, and do so in manner that we as adults can display proudly in our homes. When planning a piece I often imagine how the finished piece would look in a contemporary living room, dining room, lounge, etc.
The Concept
In order to achieve the mission stated above as well as explore my creative and artistic side, the idea of amalgamating different artistic disciplines on the same canvas was born. The concept is to take my portrait realism and juxtapose it with a background that expresses my feeling and emotions of the subject I'm painting. This method also allows me to explore other disciplines of art - many of my backgrounds will include Abstract, Expressionism, Impressionism, Realism, Pop Art, Street Art, Surrealism and quite often a combination of these. This is where I get to enjoy the artistic side of these pieces as well as paying additional homage to some of my favorite visual artists. My work is a true collaboration of music and art where I take a very influential subject matter and combine it with inspiration from artists such as Warhol, Bansky, Basquiat and Pollock to name just a few.