Tools As Art: The Hechinger Collection

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Mr. Imagination, Paintbrush Portraits, 1991
mixed media with paintbrushes
9 x 4 to 12 x 5 in.

Mr. Imagination was born in 1948 and has lived most of his life in Chicago. Although he has no formal artistic training, he has always been creatively inclined. In 1978, while in a coma after being critically wounded by a gunshot, he has visions of himself as an Egyptian pharaoh; these images inspired the work that he began to create during his recovery. He also draws on Christianity, contemporary events, and public figures as sources for his imagery, and he often incorporates African patterns and motifs into his work. The artist begins with found objects and materials, which he carves and paints, using simple tools, often other found objects. He thinks of the process as bringing new life to objects that have lost their original usefulness. The paintbrush portraits, a continuing series, grew out of his reluctance to discard the brush he had used to create his early works. Having grown attached to it, he said, "Finally, I thought of this idea of bringing it back to life in another way."