Ambitious Kiss frontman Paul Stanley is not satisfied merely being the effeminate voice behind one of the leading joke bands to come out of New York in the last century. Oh no. Much like Michelangelo, who could easily turn his attention from sculpture, to poetry, to architecture and then to engineering...Paul Stanley has gone from sounding like a southern black woman on stage, to the world of painting. Apparently, Paul was not content merely sucking at one thing, and decided to widen his field of horrible artistic output. I present to you, the art of Paul Stanley. Please pay attention to the titles of these pieces, it will help you understand them.
JesterI think this painting is about the duality of his role in Kiss. Court jester to the masses, the sad clown, always there to entertain. But who will entertain him?
KarmaThis painting is about what Gene Simmons has coming to him for that remake of "Firestarter", and for selling two of his alarm clocks for thousands of dollars to his fans in that Kiss auction a few years back.
Infinite SolitudeAgain, this piece touches on the contrast between the man on stage, the superstar...who must then go home alone and cry to himself about not being able to let the world know his true self. This piece's subtitle must be: "Ain't no closet big enough"
Burning HandThis piece is a bit of an inside joke with the Kiss crew. The painting is about a sexual position developed by Paul himself during their 1982 Unasked tour. You don't even want to know the details. It has to do with Drano, Gene's wig, and a complex pulley system.
KyotoThis piece is statement about the United States' unwillingness to enter into the Kyoto Treaty. Who said Paul was shallow and didn't understand politics? The song Hotter Than Hell was totally about global warming, Black Diamond was about the issue of diamond mining in Africa, and Love Gun was...well, okay. That one was a childish homage to his genitalia. But you get the point.
Want more? Check out this interview that Paul did at his gallery opening.
here's my comments:
ReplyDelete1. The Jester is obviously a self portrait. very insightful and sad indeed.
2. Karma looks like a sore from a nasty skin infection. ew!
3. Burning Hand might actually have something to do with the lyrics to Great Expectations:
"And you watch me playin' guitar
And you feel what my fingers can do
And you wish you were the one I was doing it to"
4. call me an art-fag with no taste, but Kyoto is actually not bad. Looks like an Albers painting on acid; and i don't mean that as a bad thing. it's almost Rothko-ish?
5. most important of all: that shot of paul with the brushes is fucking priceless! i'd frame that shit and hang it above my bed in a micro-second!
oh, i forgot to make fun of you for posting this at 6:55am. I'd rather sleep a bit longer than get on the internet to post on some shitty blog. i guess i'm just weird ^_^
ReplyDeleteman i think the non-representational ones aren't that bad. i mean, they're pretty average and look like they could be in the hallway at the Hilton Garden Express in Long Island, but they're competent at least... jester, well, that one is horrible, but other ones are decent.
ReplyDeletei'd like to see him use more dynamic compositions, because the heavy symmetry is a little static, but his use of color and texture aren't bad at all.
"the burning hand" is awful, though. could also represent excessive masturbation.
ReplyDeletethe abstract ones are static, and he likes to frame things too much. if i may disagree, i think he's one level below the Long Island Hilton. Best Western? I say this because the color scheme in Karma is so awful. yikes. Rothko would die all over again. Jester and the hand one, show that he basically uses the brush as an amateur uses a pen when doodling during a phone call or in a waiting room. single line for the jaw, a nose made up of a line, fingernails made made up of one line etc. each thing is made up of a single line, in black...on a lighter background. yikes. maybe he's jelous cus gene simmons drew a ton as a kid and had a comic book/zine type thing. maybe he's also painting because he's sad about his face looking like its melting.
ReplyDeletesee? that's why i like kyoto, even tho its a pretty predictable composition, it doest feel confined. i agree with the sergeant, he's not THAT bad when he does the non-representational abstract thing. The other two are just plain BAD. worse than john wayne gacy, that's for sure.
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ReplyDelete"Infinite Solitude" is a condom still inside the wrapper, right?
ReplyDeleteYou know, like that NoFX album cover I've seen on shelves but don't have because I'm too metal for that whiney shit?
http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=NOFX+Ribbed
--LEV
I agree that he is sounding like a southern black woman on stage, but even though those paintings are not fantastic they are not all thaaaaat bad. Kiss ruled though!
ReplyDeleteLick it up...
ReplyDeletePaul's artwork is about what you'd expect from a bored dude with too much money & too much time on his hands. Gotta give him some credit, though, it takes balls to present that stuff as if it's serious or something.
ReplyDeletespeaking of duality - check out his "self-portrait":
ReplyDeletehttp://www.paulstanley.com/images/gallery_medium/selfportrait.jpg
if that ain't a woman, i don't know what is.
Karma looks like some guy blew his load on a red plate.
ReplyDelete