24” x 20” oil on wood, 2024.
 
Butch Anthony is a very interesting dude. I came across his art years ago online, and when reading about him further, I was very intrigued. He’s a well recognized folk artist. He has a drive-thru museum in Alabama which is akin to a giant cabinet of curiosities. When he was a teenager, he found a 65-million-year-old dinosaur bone in a creek on his family’s property.

A lot of his artwork consist of taking old paintings found at flea markets or thrift stores and drawing his signature style skeletons on top of them, showing that no matter what’s on the outside, we’re all the same on the inside.

I saw a photo of Butch online with one of his unique skulls drawn across his fingers. The photo was a black and white. I wondered what it looked like in color so I decided to paint it and see. I really like the resulting piece.