Trevor “Stickman” Stickel “Black is the New Black”

2025
24"x32"
Mixed Media Painting on Canvas. Hand Signed in Pigment by the artist.
Appraisal: $10,700

About this piece:
About:

At first glance, this piece does not look like it belongs in my catalog – floral pieces don't usually scream rock and rebellion. It's in the inspiration that this offering starts to make sense on why it could be a corner stone painting of a rock artist.

It started as I was lying in the operating room for a recent surgery. My medical team was asking me about my tattoos and the conversation quickly turned to music. This ultimately led to them letting me pick a song to listen to as they did their final prep work and sent me off to sleep. I asked them to play one of my two favorite songs, "Black" by Pearl Jam or "Paint it Black" by the Stones. The last words I heard as I faded out were – "I guess we don't need to ask your favorite colour". The seed was planted with that statement.

While in recovery, I started thinking more about the exchange and about all the bands, albums and songs in rock music that referenced the colour black. I wanted to pay tribute to the colour and its prevalence in the rock genre – but it was extremely tough to conceptualize how to pay tribute to black.

In yet another happy accident, I was simultaneously also trying to conceptualize a completely different piece based on starting new, or a rebirth, due to finally coming out of a very long health battle. I turned to Google to research images and ideas that may symbolize a rebirth, and to my pleasant surprise, the first page filled up with references to black roses as this symbol. It was perfect, I was able to combine a double meaning into a single work – and for the next month this piece "turned my world to black".
Trevor "Stickman" Stickel specializes in music inspired pop-realism paintings that capture legendary moments, powerful ideas, and raw emotion. His work is described as gritty-yet fresh, complex-yet simple.

Graduating from a Jekyll and Hyde influence early in his career, in which he divided his time between family portraits and airbrush design work on helmets and Harleys, Stickman had the epiphany to combine both styles while reading "According to the Rolling Stones". Two weeks later he finished his first canvas portrait of Mick Jagger, aptly titled "Please allow me to introduce myself", which forever changed the direction of his career in the art world.

THE MISSION

The idea or "mission" behind Stickman's artwork is to create an artistic tribute to the music, musicians and icons that have had a tremendous impact on him and many others. Historically, these tributes would have been limited to photos/posters. Stickman aims to create a style of art that brings these iconic figures and songs back into our lives in a unique way through fine art.

THE CONCEPT

The concept of Stickman's work is to combine realism, pop-art, impressionism and other disciplines of art to express the feelings and emotions of the subject or musical inspiration. This approach allows him to explore the artistic side of these pieces, while paying additional homage to some of his favorite visual artists.

THE SYMBOL

In addition to the art itself, Stickman also adds (and quite often hides)
his trademarked Stickman symbol (stick figure with devil horns). The Stickman symbol is derived from Stickman's last name (Stickel) and a common phrase he hears from viewers, "I can't even draw a stick man". The horns represent rock and roll (his primary inspiration), which is generally regarded as the devil's music, and references the duality of man (good vs evil).

THE TITLE

The title of each piece is often overlooked but may very well be the most important piece of the puzzle. Stickman looks for a lyric that he believes personifies the subject or his feeling toward that subject, and then strives to create an image and feeling that takes the viewer to that emotional state of mind. The titles are always a lyric from the song of inspiration, but rarely the title of a song. If the viewer is a fan of the song, they should almost hear the lyric or feel the emotion of the lyric when looking at the piece. Knowing the title completes the emotional connection to the painting.