Saturday 18 July 2009

Rock 'n' Roll Art No. 2


J.D.Sipe was born in 1951 in the small farming community of New London, Wisconsin but has lived most of his life in New Mexico. He is an award winning self-taught artist who specialises in painting blues singers and general musicians that he's a fan of. He paints on pine boards, and embellishes his paintings with bits of recycled aluminium can. See Lightnin' Hopkins' tie and handkerchief as an example.

Among our heroes to look out for, Snipes has painted Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker, Hank Williams, BB King and Stevie Ray Vaughan.


Away from art he is the bass player for the blues band the HooDoos, performing in saloons, dancehalls, honky-tonks, roadhouse and nightclubs throughout the Southwest. He has been a professional musician for more than thirty years, and has performed with such bluesmen as Homesick James, Joe Huston, Buddy Ace and Wild Child Butler. He loves to tell the story about the night that Steve Winwood sat in with his band at the Chicago Bar in Tucson.

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