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Tommy Cheng
Estee, Oil on Panel, Folk Art, Estee Lauder, Portraits, The Outsiders, 20 x 15

2020

About the Item

Quote from Estee Lauder "Be Strong. Be Confident " Be the Star of your own life". "Keep and eye on the competition but this doesn't mean copying them." Below are other paintings available by Tommy Cheng. Artist Statement: A brief history of my artistic life begins with nothing. I really didn’t ever have much interest in the world of art other than the performing arts which I loved and participated in for most of my life. I never took a class or studied drawing or painting. Then in the 1980’s on a vacation to Jamaica I saw paintings by a school of untrained artists called the Intuitives. This led to me seeing work by Southern folk artists and folks labeled Outsiders. Something about this work spoke to me and I started buying paintings wanting to surround myself it. But I couldn’t afford it-so I began making it. I soon learned that my painting scenes of Rastafarian life or the rural Southern experience was ridiculous. I have a great interest in people. Especially people I admire so portraiture was what I decided to do. My style developed fairly quickly. Finding a subject, doing as much research on the person as possible, a quick sketch, and then hours of carefully laying down paint. Since a lot of the time the photos I used as reference were black and white I limited my pallet to just the essentials. And things pretty much haven’t changed for thirty some years. Soon enough I was surrounded by art-and it was all mine. My first attempt at selling my paintings was after seeing the Outsider Art Fair in NYC. I went to the opening night and the next day loaded up my car with a bunch of paintings and set them up across the street from the venue. There were a few other artists doing the same thing and the reaction was pretty much people saying “these are the REAL Outsiders-they can’t get inside” as they went in to the show. One guy stopped and told me that I should bring the paintings to his gallery and he’d buy them. He is the vintage poster king of NYC and he knows how to make money. We struck a deal that he would buy everything I made. However he really paid very, very little. But that was OK with me. I was young. I had never sold anything. My painting were in a SoHo gallery when SoHo was the place to go for art. And at the end of the day I could take the money I made and walk across the Street to the legendary Pearl Paint and buy supplies with the money I made from painting and go home and make 30 more pieces. I still see Philip from time to time and he still has a ton of my really early work which he is still selling to this day. Oh and you should know about my friend Carlotta the hat maker. She worked out of a space next to my studio in the Church. She makes one of a kind floppy hats out of upholstery fabric scraps and sells them at street fairs and craft shows. She takes my paintings out with her hats because she’s my friend and they draw attention from a distance. It’s a symbiotic relationship. And although I hate to see pieces that I spend days and weeks working on next to the Funnel Cake stand she does sell paintings for me. I also get commissions from people who see my work at her booth and contact me.
  • Creator:
    Tommy Cheng (American)
  • Creation Year:
    2020
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 20 in (50.8 cm)Width: 15 in (38.1 cm)Depth: 0.13 in (3.31 mm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Houston, TX
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU1405210479792

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