Stone, of Silver Spring, is a contractor by day and artist by night. His paintings will be at the Takoma Park Community Center’s Atrium Gallery on March 16 through May 10 in an exhibit called H@ndymen. The 51-year-old husband and father has never publicly shown his art before.
How long have you been painting? I’ve been painting since I was 5, and the last few years I’ve really gotten into it. When I come home at night, after the kids go to bed, I pop a couple beers, listen to music and paint.
What do you paint about? You have access on the Internet to the past, the present, the future. I try to mash that all up together through quotes of people in the past and techniques of painting in the past, like abstract expressionism, and figurative painting.
How would you describe your work? The genre is something I invented: Picasso-like figures on an abstract expressionist background. I also have paintings that are letters [to people] on top of expressionist paintings. A lot of times I’ll start out with an expressionist painting and then either paint one of these portraits over it or a letter painting. It’s called H@ndymen because a lot of the portraits are hands. … I work with my hands a lot, and a lot of myself is in these paintings.
What is your favorite piece? The first [letter painting] I really liked was to Steve Jobs. It said, ‘Dear Steve, iPhoned you several times and went to your pad. We wanted more of those delicious apples you gave us.’ I have another one that I did the day he died. I was working on it for a year. It was about the Apple Cloud: ‘iPhoned you. You must have been on break or tinkering in the clouds.’
– Rachel Baye
