06/18/2026
Many Hats
Acrylic on canvas, 24” x 36”, 2026
When Artel Gallery announced its Black & White Exhibit, I went searching for a subject and found a photograph of a man wearing an impossible stack of hats.
At first, it was the hats that captured my attention—the whimsy, the patterns, the theatricality. But as I painted, I found myself drawn to something deeper: the calm confidence of the man beneath them.
Only later did I learn he was Quentin Crisp, a writer, performer, and cultural icon known for living unapologetically as himself.
Funny how it was the hats that drew me in, but it was the man beneath them that kept me there.
Created for the Artel Gallery Black & White Exhibit.
