Hand painted shirt by well known artist

Hi,
Back in 1987 I was visiting friends at Key West. An artist lived next door and invited us over for drinks and dinner. His name was Piero Aversa. I was walking through his garden in the moonlight. I was wearing jeans and a white dress shirt.
Piero exclaimed I looked like a moving canvas. He asked if he could paint on my shirt. I agreed and he started painting on it while I was wearing it. We were having drinks so he asked if I could take it off for him to finish. He spent several hours on it and signed it. He loaned me a shirt so I was dressed for dinner. He said come back tomorrow and the painting should be dried. He had the most amazing paintings and pottery and textiles that he had done over the years. He said he always wanted to paint a shirt and now he did. This is the shirt, now Piero died a few years after the painting. Now is this a painting and have any value or just a painted textile. Do you think it has any value?

 

Um, so he talked you into having drinks and taking off your shirt and you're still convinced it was about the painting? And then you went to dinner wearing his shirt?

 

You had to know key West back in the "good old days" Bev ! It wouldn't have been unusual for everyone to be nude ! LOL ! I love it,it reminds me of a shirt I had once that was based on Chagalls work.

 

Hi Bev,
Seriously when you put it that way it is funny. However he never made a move on me, there were four women and six guys there. It was a really nice evening.
greg

 

Love your kitchen table and deco!!

 

I'll bet you were hot stuff back then. Probably still are.

 

There is a Piero Aversa FB page
https://www.facebook.com/PieroAversaCollection

and a website
http://www.pieroaversacollection.com/the-collection.htm

You should really do some research on this shirt. You might be quite surprised.

 

Trust me, Key West hasn't changed all that much. We live right near Key West North aka Provincetown. Fabulous art galleries, restaurants and very interesting people all summer and then they wisely move to KW in the winter.

 

Hi Bev,
Thank you so much for the links. He really was a hoot. I was looking at some of his mosiac paintings and they got the year wrong on two of them. They have 1988 and I saw them in his house hanging on the wall in 1987. I emailed some photos and the story of the shirt to the gallery handling his collections. If wonder if I should have it framed?
greg

 

All I can see is a dirty shirt. Maybe it's the photographs.

 

There are some galleries in PTown that would be interested if you don't get any satisfaction from that other gallery.

 

Hi Jackolin,
Thank you for your comments on my enamel top table. Here are a few photos of my kitchen. This is my everyday Fiesta. Sorry about the lamp it is NOT my style ,it was here when I bought the place but my newphews loved so it stayed.
greg

 

Love that Fiesta -- so colourful. And your kitchen table chairs are very much like ones my grandparents had -- only theirs were painted yellow.

 

Greg,that is a seriously cute kitchen and that fixture is perfect !

 

Hi Wendy,
When I bought the chairs they were Pepto-Bismol pink, you can see some wear where it is showing. The date of June 1937 is stamped on the bottom of them. I bought 14 of them, only six were pink. I used four of them in my old kitchen and the rest I used outside for seating when I gave garden parties. I had 20 other wooden chairs used also. Can you tell I hate plastic or La de Da resin chairs. Remember the colors in Fiesta were meant to banish the greyness of the depression.
greg

 

Greg, I love your kitchen, too!

 

Amazing collection of Fiesta, I would be happy to live in your kitchen - so cheery and colorful! Thanks for showing us.

 

Nice Fiesta collection. We use ours everyday as well.

 

Hi,
Thanks for the compliements. My good pieces of Fiesta are packed away for resale later. These get used, go in the dishwasher some have chips and what is funny is the couple of plates from the new Fiesta show utensile marks, have crazing and show wear, the old Fiesta does not. When people come over they are shocked that I put in into the dishwasher. The secret to that is I do not use the drying element and use cheap non lemon detergent. My Wedgwood jasperware goes into the washer also. My sterling flatware does NOT go in there but my silver plate flatware does, just not anywere near stainless steel.
greg