As he celebrates his 35th anniversary as the lead singer of KISS, Paul Stanley is making another name for himself as a painter and artist. More recently, he celebrated more than $3-million in sales of his paintings in 2008. Paul Stanley joined us this morning with details of his art show in New Jersey.
The Beatles had Paul McCartney. Led Zeppelin had Robert Plant. KISS have Paul Stanley.
For more than thirty years, Paul Stanley has reigned supreme as one of the single-most recognizable frontmen in the history of rock and roll. He's the principal songwriter, driving force and the unwavering voice of KISS, one of the most successful and influential bands ever born on American soil. Employing equal parts hip-grinding rhythm, full-tilt glam and guitar-driven slam, Stanley single-handedly penned such escapist anthems as "Love Gun," "God of Thunder" and "Black Diamond." He was the golden throat that throttled "Detroit Rock City," the charismatic swagger behind "I Was Made For Lovin' You," and stripped of makeup, was the unmasked troubadour that breathed vocal life into the ballads "Reason to Live," "Forever" and "Every Time I Look At You."
Paul Stanley – singer, guitarist, and songwriter for the theatrical rock group Kiss – has been known as a rock and roll artist for years. However with his latest endeavor, that title has taken on a whole new meaning.
Last year Stanley’s paintings, not his music, accounted for over $3 million in sales.
Stanley regularly appears at exhibitions of his paintings at various Wentworth Gallery locations across the country.
Stanley, 57, had been an art major at the prestigious High School of Music and Art in New York City. As a teenager, music became his passion, but he never abandoned his love of visual art. Over the years as a member of Kiss, he has expressed his visual creativity at photo shoots, and in stage or album cover designs.
In 2000, while going through a divorce from his first wife, he started painting as a form of personal therapy.
“I turned to painting as a means of self-expression,” Stanley said in a telephone interview. “But what I’ve always found is that when I do something that pleases me, it usually finds an audience and takes on a life of its own.”
Critics, it's time to shake in your platform boots. Rock 'n' roll's 'Starchild" doesn't put on his leather or smear his palette to impress you.
"I don't live by anybody else's sense of what my boundaries should be, or what their expectations or limitations might be, so whether it was doing 'Phantom of the Opera' or painting, or KISS, it's all things that I look at and find appealing," says KISS guitarist Paul Stanley, who will make special appearances with his paintings at two galleries in New Jersey this weekend. "What the art world thinks honestly has no more impact on me than what the music world thinks. It's what the people think."
Stanley's populism needs little defense. The 57-year-old artist's brightly colored oil paintings, simply constructed and heavily textured with brushes, fingers and the palette knife, are automatically collectable ($3 million in sales last year) because an international rock star painted them.
And this particular international rock star, a New York City original born to Jewish immigrant parents, may have learned part of his mantra concerning other people's opinions on Staten Island.
He’s more famous for painting his face, not canvases, but for years Paul Stanley, frontman for the legendary rock band Kiss, has been making the move from huge arenas to small galleries. Stanley, 57, will be in New Jersey this weekend for two art shows featuring his paintings and sculptures. The native New Yorker filled us in on his art:
When did you start painting?
About eight years ago. I’ve probably done 26 shows in the last year-and-a-half. Usually once a month I’m in some city in America doing an art show and this weekend is no different.
How would you describe your art style?
The one common thread to everything is color. I look upon painting as a challenge in terms of depicting emotions and feelings. So as far as “a style,” I don’t find at this moment there is a particular style as much as there is a point of view about color.
Paul will appear on the Happy Hour Show today at 5:45 PM on the Fox Business Network . The topic of the segment will be Paul's successful art career and KISS' 35th Anniversary.
Here's one of Paul's latest paintings, "Dream Catcher". It's one of three new paintings that Paul will exhibit at his New Jersey Art shows this weekend.
Friday - February 27, 2009 - 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Wentworth Gallery
The Shops at Riverside
171 Riverside Square
Hackensack, NJ
For details on the VIP Reception with Paul Stanley
or to RSVP please call 201-488-7661 or 800-732-6140.
Saturday - February 28, 2009- 4:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Wentworth Gallery
The Mall at Short Hills
1200 Morris Turnpike
Short Hills, NJ
For details on the VIP Reception with Paul Stanley
or to RSVP please call 973-564-9776 or 800-732-6140
Wentworth Gallery is pleased to present two art exhibitions by artist, rock icon, and legendary KISS frontman Paul Stanley. Paul will make two special appearances at the following Wentworth Gallery locations in February.
Friday - February 27, 2009 - 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Wentworth Gallery
The Shops at Riverside
171 Riverside Square
Hackensack, NJ
For details on the VIP Reception with Paul Stanley
or to RSVP please call 201-488-7661 or 800-732-6140.
Saturday - February 28, 2009- 4:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Wentworth Gallery
The Mall at Short Hills
1200 Morris Turnpike
Short Hills, NJ
For details on the VIP Reception with Paul Stanley
or to RSVP please call 973-564-9776 or 800-732-6140
Mego, the famous toy company from the 70's, has a museum web site of all of their classic toys, and today...their Mego of the Day is a Paul Stanley doll!!
Here's the latest Paul Stanley Guitar from Washburn, the 10th Anniversary edition of the classic PS2000. The guitar is available in Black, White and Cracked Mirror.
The Paul Stanley Signature Series also includes several models of the Preacher Guitar that Paul used on his 2006/2007 Solo Tour.
Built in the USA Custom Shop
Mahogany body with maple cap
Gloss finish
8 ply binding
Tone Pros® tune-o-matic bridge
Paul Stanley Tailpiece
Seymour Duncan '59 neck pickup
Seymour Duncan JB bridge pickup
3-way toggle switch
2 volume, 1 tone control
Mahogany set neck
Ebony fingerboard with Paul Stanley pearl/abalone split block inlays (X at 12th fret)
22 jumbo frets
24.75" scale
14" fingerboard radius
Double action truss rod
Graph Tech nut
18:1 Grover® tuners
Buzz Feiten Tuning System™
Case: GC31 Included
Colors: Black, White, Cracked Mirror
KISS frontman Paul Stanley and his wife Erin welcomed an 8 lb. baby girl on Jan. 28, the rocker's rep tells PEOPLE exclusively.
"The KISS Army has a new princess and her name is Sarah Brianna," says Stanley, 57. "Erin and I feel truly blessed with the addition of this Star Child into our lives."
Sarah is the second child for the couple, who married in 2005.
The singer/guitarist and his wife, an attorney, live in Beverly Hills with their son Colin Michael, 2, and Stanley's son Evan Shane, 14, from his previous marriage.
In addition to caring for Sarah, Stanley has other big projects on the horizon: The accomplished painter will tour America with KISS this summer to celebrate the band's 35-year anniversary.
Paul Stanley tells Page Six that he, Gene Simmons and the band are headed into the studio to grind out a new record for release this fall. "It's a KISS album in the most true and classic sense - we're recording it in analog, not digital, and writing it ourselves," says Stanley, who also paints and will hold an exhibit Feb. 27-28 at the Wentworth Gallery in Hackensack, NJ.
