Chuck Middlekauff Works

I do my artwork for the love of it, for the fun of it, and to share what I see and feel.

Like Norman Rockwell, one of my many artist heroes, I want others to experience the things of our culture and of days gone by. But I want to show them in a fresh, exciting, and unusual way.

My passion for the open road, classic rock and roll and country music, and the cultural icons of America (especially the American West) shows up in my paintings. Often focusing on close-ups of cowboys, and what they do when they're not chasing cows, I set them on fences, with a yo-yo or M&Ms, wearing dusty jeans and crusty boots. Sometimes I just paint the jeans and boots.

From there, I never know what I'll find to put with cowboys (or sometimes without those cowboys). It might be a Warholesque Campbell's Soup can, Marilyn Monroe. Or it might be an aging Coke sign, dilapidated billboard, candy wrapper, rusty café or motel signs, toy, truck, or cartoon, as long I can paint them old and weathered, full of colors and textures. I often include a made-up mural or even collage on real 45 records or a license plate, just for the fun of it.

By combining the past with the present, putting things together that don't necessarily appear together (but in my vision, they could) and adding touches of humor, even sentimentality, I want my paintings to be fun and surprising (for me and for collectors), and to evoke a rich nostalgia for things that may soon be gone. 

I hope viewers will be entertained and reminisce with me as I paint what I grasp from all those great American symbols. The puns and twists in my juxtapositions of shapes, subjects, textures, colors, splatters, drips, art tools, and titles add to the FUN.

It's my unique vision of America.