Full Liner Notes
Brian Fallon once shared that the phrase “Diamond Sinatras” was really just an image that came to him. It didn’t fully make sense, but it was something he needed at the time. That’s what every painting in this series is.
The process is intuitive. I don’t plan things in advance. I uncover the story as I go—responding to colors, textures, the lyrics and the mood, the moment and the music. The paintings tell me what they want to be, and each panel tells its own four-sided story.
Music is both inspiration and co-creator. I play the canvas like a washboard at a kitchen party. The music decides the brushstrokes—paint pens become shaker eggs, palette knives tap to the beat as it mixes.
Most of the characters in this series emerged from lyrics—especially the music of Brian Fallon and The Gaslight Anthem—though others echo through the layers too. As I paint, the lyrics speak and the story unfolds. Not just as fiction, but as something strangely real. It mirrors my own life in uncanny ways. The story becomes layered, meta, reflective, and alive. It changes as I do. Everything is in progress. Everything can change.
Sometimes I isolate sections of the canvas with painter’s tape, carving out cinematic panels—individual frames within the larger painting. Each one is its own world. Some connect to the main narrative. Some diverge completely. Some are magnifications of moments too big for the canvas to hold. Others are windows into past or future lives, memories, or alternate realities. They’re movies within the movie, plays within the play. Sometimes wildly active. Sometimes just quiet and true.
I am self-taught, and nothing is too precious to paint over. The layers create depth. The process is messy, slow, emotional—but deeply alive. Some paintings take years to finish. Some announce themselves as part of the series long after being set aside. I’ve learned not to question it.
The series is called Diamond Sinatras. It’s about finding your joy. It’s about the invisible thread between artists who may never meet but still find each other—across songs, across canvases, across time. I believe it all comes from the same source. Everything is connected in ways we may never fully understand.
The thread is love.
At its core, this project is about connection to creative energy—the force that heals and guides if we let it. It’s about the way music and art can reach through chaos and bring you back to yourself. It’s about being present. Conscious. Awake. Moving with love and joy as the only way through. Even when you’re standing in the fire.
I’m grateful to the musicians who give me the music—and to the source that gives it to them, and the art to me.
These are the stories I see.
What you see depends on you.
Art heals. Music saves. And it’s all connected.
@djlovesyou33
medium.com/@djlovesyou
