Velvet Elvis Painting

Greg's List: The Museum of Bad Art

(NECN: Greg Wayland, Somerville, Mass.) -- Back in 1994 a Boston antique dealer rescued a painting from a curbside trash pile. He just wanted the frame, but his friends convinced him the painting was also kind of unique.

Uniquely bad. Thus was born the Museum of Bad Art.

"Art too bad to be ignored is one of our slogans. "

Because it's all so painfully eye-grabbing.

Colors straight from the tube, figures curiously off-kilter, all hung with pride at  MOBA, or the Museum of Bad Art -  a windowless cavern down -- way down --underneath the old Somerville Theatre in Somerville, Mass.

Executive Director Louise Reilly Sacco was our guide.

We saw twisted treasures like ..."the weight lifter", A sculpture resembling a burnt out match stick.

Mostly -- we saw bad paintings by good artists.
         
In fact, a certain bold sincerity is a standard for acceptance at MOBA -- which is why Chiquita probably wouldn't match your sofa.

"But there are other people who barely knew which end of the paint brush to pick up," said Louise.

In every case something went awry.

"They either had a bad day or maybe they had a bad idea "

Take Chiquita -- one of those classic images of a Latin American woman balancing fruit on her head. She's also nude.

"The concave cheekbone and the fruit. There's no way it could stay up there"

"We have some nudes that seem to have been painted by someone who's never seen a naked body," said Louise.

But good artists often donate their bad stuff to MOBA. Still, many of these bad boys are anonymous. Like a grim, symbol-crammed family portrait rescued from someone's rubbish.

"We've got ghosts, we've got some kind of a small city here"

A smiling air-brushed monstrosity was also rescued from the trash.It's a smiling portrait of -- some guy. But a mother-daughter portrait.was donated by professional artist Sarah Rainey, who was experimenting with color.

In fact, a certain bold sincerity is a standard for acceptance at MOBA -- which is why Chiquita probably wouldn't match your sofa.

"If you buy it to match your sofa, it's not art. it's interior decoration," said Louise.

And Louise says "good" bad art is not kitchy.

Like a factory-produced kitchy velvet Elvis, hung at MOBA as a classic example of kitch.

For This Entrepreneur, Velvet Elvis Paintings Were Just the Start ...

Entrepreneur: Jennifer Kenworth, aka Juanita, the velvet painter.

“AHA” Moment: In 1999, when Kenworth did a ceramics residency at a pottery studio in Gerlach, Nev., a local had a very specific request: a painting of Elvis on the cross–on velvet. Though resources were scarce in the tiny desert town, Kenworth was up for the challenge. Working from an image of Elvis in a library book, she used acrylic paint and a box of velvet scraps to create a painting she sold for $50 and a bottle of tequila.

What Possessed Her: After her residency, Kenworth moved back to Portland, Ore., and continued to paint Elvis on velvet. But she soon got bored with the King, and opted to paint other random ideas–beer cans, Star Trek characters, Mr. T. After years of showing in art shows and fairs, last year she got consistent requests for custom velvet paintings, so she made those her focus.

Why? “Velvet paintings make people smile,” Kenworth says. “They conjure up memories and stories.” She began painting at age 5, but moved her focus to sculpture in art school and didn’t paint for about 13 years–until the Elvis request. Kenworth discovered a renewed love for painting, and found velvet an intriguing medium to work with.

Continue reading:  http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/219494?

@ @ @ Sounds like bribery-I'll send you an Elvis painting on genuine black velvet when I know where you'll be on tour

Just like my parents' velvet painting of Elvis. RT @ See guys this is why we can't have nice things. We always break them.

@ when they aren't even a black velvet Elvis painting.

Découvrez cette vidéo -- Elvis Presley Painting with Cheese Puffs on Velvet - Cheesy Art in Cheetos via @

@ honey as a house warming present I would buy u a velvet Elvis painting

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