Interview with Artist DAN RUPE

THE Famous DAN RUPE:


Dan Rupe painted by GK + GK painted by Dan Rupe

Below is a little composite of Dan's history. He was 10 in the little picture wearing glasses and living in Indiana, he was in his 20's and modeling in that hot picture from (obviously) the '70's. You can see his studio from when he was in college at Boston Museum School of Fine Art. He had a large show of his portraits at West Point, NY also shown in photos. He has shown in exhibitions in Boston, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Kansas City, and Provincetown, and internationally in Mexico and the Dominican Republic. When Dan hands you his calling card, if you have just met him, it says a lot about him that you are about to find out....like....in case you didn't notice he is a BOLD man. Everything about him says that. He is filled with expressiveness. He shreiks with glee when Aretha is singing. His paintings are filled with prismatic colors and shapes that hearken to paint-by-number style paintings. His home exudes his joy of found and sentimental objects from vintage shops + tag sales.
















......Dan's studio then



and now....














Dan sojourns to Provincetown, Ma. twice each year to paint in May + August. The paintings culminate in a show at Ernden gallery at the end of August each year where they usually sell out. He loves to paint the local scenic color on the streets. This past August he said he was lucky everyday because he was able to get a parking spot at each location being that the town is in high gear with tourism. ( I can remember at the young age of 11 in 1967, our family took a summer trip throughout New England. We went to Ptown and it was the first time that I saw a homosexual community, a town declaring it's alternative sexuality. I don't think my parents used the word Gay. I was extremely curious because there was a colorful sense of fun and gay-ity in this town that was a tad bit different than say- West Hampton, LI- where we usually spent our summer vacations).


Here are some of the paintings he did this past summer that are on view at the Ernden gallery now.....





















































Dan is working a series of "Dogs" for Artswalk in Hudson, NY in October. See a couple of dogs below.
Take a peek around Dan's pad. He has lived in Hudson for 8 years. He loves to shop at Second Show where he picks up a lot of chatzkes







DOGS +
more chatzkes- chatzkes + more chatzkes - Dan can't resist

































Let's go out to the garden....

























Dan is going to answer 9 of the 10 questions....
(double click to enlarge for clarity)








































That's the end of this interview...if you have any questions for Dan, leave a comment and I'll get the answer... and here's a little video interview with Dan on youtube: