Believe it or not, I know a few people who are not hipsters collecting paint by numbers ironically but actually think that shit is real art (I may or may not be related to these people or live upstairs from one of them). Not to sound like an art snob, but my mom was a struggling artist as a child, and as a participant in this world, I was forced to make art throughout my life (whether I wanted to or not). It wasn’t until college that I found my groove in photography and art history and began to show appreciation. I still remember this one older chick in Art History II saying Picasso did not know how to draw (if you look at his early work…um, he did) and he’d never be up there as a real artist like Norman Rockwell. Yep, someone actually said those words. I remember my professor (who is a well-known Chicago artist) just shaking his head. But let’s get back to the “art” of paint by numbers. Yes, my neighbor hangs a pastoral scene in a prominent place in her front room with a light above it. And that’s not the crazy part of this story. In 2008 a private collector assembled over 6,000 of these works dating back to the 1950s to create the Paint By Number Museum, the world’s largest online archive of fill-in-the-blank, anyone-can-follow-directions art pieces. If you search the collection, you’ll find some interesting paintings, including a few based on the genius of Norman Rockwell. And my apologies to anyone who happens to like this shit and is offended by this post. I hope the Goddess of Paint By Numbers sends a thousand Sad Clown paintings your way.
Paint By Number Museum
