16” x 20” acrylic on canvas. Canvas is 100% cotton duck with an acrylic titanium triple primer.

What’s the story behind this painting?

In spite of all the sitcoms and cartoons I watched during my childhood, music videos were a huge part of my TV viewing. We would go through periods of accessing cable TV and when we did, my goodness it was a godsend from boredom. Suddenly my siblings and I could watch MTV, VH1, and an array of other channels that catered to our musical tastes, which happened to be pretty broad. I remember we would request music videos that were roughly 99¢ to $1.99 through a special channel and you had to wait for your requests to play from the queue, depending on how many songs one ordered. Tastes in music varied, but I recall one of my siblings ordering a Snoop Dogg music video. You could also find the collaborative duet tune between Bono and Frank Sinatra in “I’ve got you under my skin” in the queue. Again—it was the 90s, and our palettes were eclectic.

Of course, when we did watch MTV or VH1, we watched Mariah Carey, Toni Braxton, Jon Secada, Sting, and other popular artists sing some of the decade’s most memorable songs. Rockabilly and swing had a comeback during the decade as well, especially the latter, thanks to the movie “Swing Kids.” A few years later, the film “Swingers” epitomized the music craze with the help of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. This painting displays an extraction of colors from music videos that I recall watching in my youth.