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Tony
Pacheco was born on June 1, 1920 in the old whaling city of New Bedford,
Massachusetts. His entire life was dedicated to art and music.
He began drawing and painting at the age 5
and was so precocious that he won many art awards during his early
school years.
He joined the U.S. Army at the age of 20
and during World War II painted much of the nose art on the fighter jet
planes that attacked Germany. It was reported that one of those
airplanes was shot down and though the pilot survived, the section of
the plane that was not destroyed and contained Tony’s artwork on the
nose, was taken by a Nazi Colonel for his own private art collection
and kept in a warehouse until the war was over.
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Portrait by Sue Miller |
In 1948 Tony attended the prestigious
Swain School of Art and Design in New Bedford and graduated 4 years
later having won many national prizes.
He
was also an accomplished guitar player, performing all over New England,
and from 1952 until 1980 owned a music store and teaching center where
both music and art were taught.
He painted in many styles, restlessly
searching for new challenges and sold many works. It is rumored that one
of the Kennedy family has one.
He maintained a child’s creativity all of
his life. One day he would paint something surrealistic, the next day he
would paint cartoon characters. The next day he would paint a landscape
or portrait and the day after he might paint his own version of a Vargas
style girl.
He even made sculptures out of wood, cans,
bottles or any common pieces of what some people
would consider junk and would turn them into awesome pieces of art much
like artists working in the currently popular school called “ Outsider
Art.” He was far ahead of his time. I even have an oil truck he made
in 1950 using a large Campbell Soup can. He was 15 years ahead of Andy
Warhol.
His passing on January 6, 2005 stopped all
that great creativity. Thankfully, most art survives the artist and
between his 5 children we have a lot of it.
It is now time for the world to see and
share the Art of Tony Pacheco.
Tony's art work graced the cover of the
"Writers Post Journal" the month of June 07. His art is being licensed
by the Fairy Society:
www.thefairysociety.com.
Anyone interested in licensing Tony Pacheco's valuable art work,
contact his daughter Sue Miller at
angelknock@optonline.net, TEL..973-663-4120,
www.suemillerart.com.
All Paintings by Tony Pacheco are
copyright by The Tony Pacheco Family 2005
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