The art gallery, La Luz de Jesus was celebrating Dee Dee Ramones’ birthday yesterday, and has assembled for the occasion an exhibition of over thirty original paintings, many of which were displayed for the very first time.
The whole thing had been advertised very little, and since I live very close to this gallery, I decided to stop by for the opening, around 10:30 pm. The place was full of people, more or less looking like some idea of the Ramones, and some celebrities showed up. And Helen, I know you love him,… I have some pictures!
So I was of course familiar with Dee Dee the punk rocker, but the painter? It’s colorful, pink, yellow, blue, rebellious in a childish kind of way, and cartoonish, yeah, definitively, the Ramones were made to be cartoon characters, Matt Groening and others understood it well.
Beside the paintings there was a panel of rare vintage photographs taken by Jenny Lens.
Jenny was so excited to be there, I have checked her website, and she is the most published first-wave west coast punk photographer in the history of the movement!
I had the impression to be surrounded by celebrities I was not recognizing, when suddenly I heard Jenny screaming hysterically like a groupie in front of her idol. Man, this woman has taken pictures of all the rock stars who have ever existed in the late 70’s, from Joe strummer to the Sex Pistols, to … look at the list on her website! And she still screams when she sees… Russell Brand who was trying to silently step in. Russell signed autographs and posed for pictures with his tall stature.
John Cafiero, manager for Dee Dee Ramone, and at the head of the Ramones estate with Linda Ramone, took the mic to talk about Dee Dee and his sweet and individualistic personality, then, one by one several persons shared their memories about Dee Dee.
Jenny of course talked about her experience with the Ramones showing a lot of passion, ‘I’m a little hyper’ she said, but her biggest dream was to share all these pictures. Her favorite one was the one showing Dee Dee wearing his leather jacket, leaning against a door, with ’that rare gaze’, because she added, Dee Dee was not someone in peace with himself.
Rufus Dayglo, London-based comics artist who has drawn Dee Dee in his comic books, talked about their meeting and his one hour talk with him about Captain America, although Rufus knew nothing about Captain America.
Then, Stan Lee, the guitarist of The Dickies declared his love for the Ramones, and how many bands would not have existed without them.
Dee Dee’s wife, Barbara Ramone-Zampini, made a very brief apparition in front of the mic, and I could not believe how young she was, actually they met when she was just 16!
The crowd was fascinating and fascinated.
And as they were pressing people outside, trying to close the gallery at this late hour, I saw these two cool guys still hanging out, Russell and Shepard Fairey, author of many rock prints, and a few seconds before I took this picture, he was showing the one he is holding to the other guys, may be a new one?
