Tom Everhart's Homie Dreams, a suite of Peanuts

Homie Dreams by Tom Everhart There is a very seductive power to Peanuts– so much so, that we have let them settle very deeply into our own hearts. Perhaps it's because, beyond any other endearing quality, they are children. And many of us hold them dear because they remind us of the things we love most about our own childhoods. It's the time before egos, affectations and societal conventions start to hide our essential selves; when our sense of who we are and what we believe are the clearest; and our creativity flourished with the greatest fluidity we'll ever experience.

Tom Everhart in studio interview about painting Homie Dreams

Watch the video on Homie Dreams

It has been said that artists spend their whole lives trying get back to that place because children are the pure artists. That is why the Peanuts characters are the perfect muses for Tom Everhart's profound reflection on creativity and artistic inspiration in his Homie Dreams.

In this stunning series of portraits, Everhart has posed Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and the rest as if they have grown bored while posing for the painter and have just started to drift off to sleep. They try to hold their pose as if they are awake, but yet they float away. Tom explains that he wanted to show them entering into the world of dreams, as he believes that this is the place where all of us (artists or not) creatively grow the most. And that is also why they are all smiling, because they are enjoying their own "happy creative thoughts."

Each of the six portraits in the series represents the dreams of artists and, in some cases, friends who, have directly affected Tom's own dreams–including one artist who does not have a portrait but is represented in all six of the paintings. The distinct abstract style of the background is a direct homage to Tom's former neighbor, the painter Sam Francis.

When Schulz drew the Peanuts, his characters often represented people in his own life. Even though we did not know who they were, we always knew someone in our own lives who were a little—or maybe a lot—like them. And that made those characters special and personal to us. Everhart has also done this. He has once again used Lucy, Pigpen and the rest to represent people who hold their own personal importance to him. Even if we don't have our own relationship with those people, we know people in our own lives who have inspired us. That is what these paintings are about—our own creativity, inspirations, friends and dreams.

Danny Stern

Each of the six prints: Image 42" x 28.5" / Paper 46" x 32.5" / Mixed media prints on deckled edge paper

Gang Star Dreams (Charles Schulz) Snoopy is the Star of his gang. and a bit of a "gangster" as well. He represents the biggest gang Star in Everhart's life, Charles Schulz.	Girlfriend Dreams (Joan Mitchell ) Joan Mitchell taught Everhart the importance of the mark (an important theme in his own work).	Samo Dreams (Jean-Michel Basquiate) Titled for Jean-Michel's famous tag "Samo". Basquiate's unconventional approach to both his art and his life was something Everhart always admired. And for the choice of Pig Pen...well, the similarities were there.
Homegirl Dreams (Bridget Riley) Riley introduced Everhart to the concept of "color sensation," the idea that all of your senses can be overcome just by color alone.	Hipster Dog Dreams (Philip Guston) On the day Everhart and Schulz met, neither of them were aware that they were both mourning Guston's recent passing. And at the end of the day when they realized this, it made for a very special connection.	Mr. Big Stuff Dreams (Andy Warhol) Titled Mr. Big Stuff, because Woodstock is a little person with a big punch. Also because he represents Warhol, whose influence on Everhart also carried a big punch, as he caused him to see art differently than it had ever been seen before.