"Heaven Send Hell Away" (Chris Cornell)

"I graduated high school in 1992, so to say the Seattle sound (I’m not a fan of calling it “grunge”) had a significant impact on my life would be a huge understatement. So why have I waited so long to paint Chris Cornell? Truth is both Chris and Layne Staley (Alice in Chains) have been in my queue for a long time–the concept just hadn’t revealed itself to me. Most of these painting concepts come to me like a bolt of lightning, the pieces seem to fall into place like a game of Tetris. Sometimes this process takes minutes and sometimes it takes years. With Chris Cornell, it was the latter. That all changed on the morning of May 18, 2017. That evening I sat on my deck listening to my playlist titled “Everything Cornell” and tried to make sense of why these deaths have such an impact on me. It tore me apart and it was tough to pinpoint the exact reason why the passing of someone I’ve never actually met felt like losing my closest friend. It was that evening that the lightning finally struck. I never expected to portray Chris in an introspective manner, but with the circumstances surrounding his tragic death and the knowledge of his struggles, it seemed like the only fitting direction. The title lyric from Black Hole Sun takes on a new meaning for me, and the follow up lyric is the truest of statements… “no one sings like you anymore.” - Stickman

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 art work 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.