Mykl Wells

Title: Ghosts of the Congress.

Medium: Oil on Paper, Cardboard Frame

Date: 02/10/2011

Dimensions:20″ X  26″

Description:

When I hung the show, very early in the morning, one of the local schizophrenics came up and started staring very intensely at this painting. He was bouncing on his heals infront of it pulling faces when quite suddenly he said in his outside voice, “I’ve been here”!
Which was fairly amusing because he was standing in the very lobby depicted. He really liked the paintings and thanked me profusely. After he left I didn’t think any more about him. I was suprised when he returned about an hour later. He gave a spherical magnet, about the size of a big marble, saying, “its very powerful, VERY POWERFUL”. Then he left. So I walked over to another piece, the Hare Shrine, and made the first offering.

I painted this specifically for the Hotel Congress show in February of 2011. It depicts the lobby of the hotel populated by strange characters dredged up out of the back of my mind. Sort of R. Crumb meets Pieter Bruegel. I wanted something in the show that reflected back on a place I’ve spent many years, having many beers. The sculpted cardboard frame was built specifically for the painting, something to honor where I joyously squandered much of my youth. Now in a private collection.