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“Comfort, give comfort to my people." +

Those are His words and here are mine: 

Comfort in that we are not alone, we are loved, and we are here to love God and to love one another. This is a rebellious act when most attention is paid to forms of expression that make people uncomfortable. My work aims to provide spiritual healing. If not to some I am certain it affects one. I am the one. 

Moved to create in any capacity, I am the one who was on the dancefloor a generation after Mel Cheren, Keith Haring, and Andy Warhol. Thirty years ago I was drawing and painting. Twenty years ago I was sitting in an office. Ten years ago I was producing music and programming club remixes. My restless heart yearned for more. I questioned my purpose but I knew I had passion. Rather than reaching for the counsel of creatives and other people whom I had admired, I went directly to my Creator. I asked God for help and, slowly but surely, my sphere of influence opened up to revere the science of the Saints. My life as an artist required more than a renaissance, it called for resurrection. I needed to feel it from God and not society. 

I work in acrylics and oils, but I utilize whatever I can get my hands on or into. Mostly canvas, some digital, all of my pieces are indicative of my experience. Music tends to be of influence more than a body of work produced by another artist. I connect with how they move, to construct an emotional bridge and explore their grace, and it serves to move me. 

Mel Cheren, “The Godfather of Disco,” also painted. I see his influence in the rhythm of my textured acrylic works. However, I was most struck by his depiction of Jesus Christ as the rainbow enveloping NYC nightlife, giving life to so many, amid the darkest days and heaviness of death among the gay community. 

I admire Keith Haring as an artist. As a gay man I also relate to his love for dance music. I think that he would get a kick out of the fact that I paint in my underwear, mixing records as I dance and sing. It’s a kind vibe and kind people are my kind of people. 

Beyond my preference for blondes and making art that pops, this gentleman must mention another gentleman who I consider to be very cool for reasons that go far beyond glitz and glam. Andy Warhol loved his Mother and, in the midst of all the life he was living, he still managed to go to Church regularly. That’s fierce.

So whether it’s a portrait of a pop star, an abstract in acrylics, or painting on my knees with my bare hands, or wearing a digital rendering of my work on a t-shirt, this is who I am. 

Amen to The Amen. 

Jason Coletta