Paul "Uncle Bean" Archetko

Update

Uncle Bean lost his battle to lung cancer in June of 2007

Sales of his work are now handled by his daughter

She will respond to all of the requests submitted here.   

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Representative Works with Artist's comments in Italics. You may click on the pieces or the titles to contact the artist on our secure server.

Outdoor Gator 14"x42"   Acrylic on layered wood. Eye is glass This piece is approved for OUTDOOR USE as well as indoor! $225
Lizard 18"x24"   Acrylic on wood embellished with glass $175	Flute Player 14"x24"   Acrylic on wood embellished with glass and beads $125
Toothy Fish 12"x24"  Acrylic on wood embellished with glass  $95	Alligator 14"x24"   Acrylic on wood embellished with glass  SOLD
Lizard 18"x24"   Acrylic on wood embellished with glass  $175	Banjo Player 18"x24"   Acrylic on layered wood embellished with glass  $175
Mermaid on a Fish 24"x24"  Acrylic on wood embellished with glass  $200	Mask 14"x24"  Acrylic on wood embellished with glass, beads, and string   $150

These delightful pieces are just a few examples of the inspired work of Paul "Uncle Bean" Archetko. These pieces have a magical quality and are just a joy to look at. The colors are dazzling and the subject matter is playful and interesting. Uncle Bean sure has an eye for the absurd as well as the ability to make you laugh and see the beauty of God's creatures. His style is almost Mayan or Aztec. You can see this in his lizards and especially the alligator with the block jaw and excessively toothy grin.    

Uncle Bean in his own words...

"I was born at the stroke of midnight on April first 1949. I think that was a pretty good indicator of how the rest of my life was going to go. I was born and raised in upstate New York and always had a need to draw and somehow  managed to raise a family and keep the children fed doing just that.

From time to time I would be a fork truck driver, a carpet salesman, a carpenter or whatever else it took to feed and clothe my dependents. But the artist was always there. My first interest was cartooning and I remember selling pictures I copied of Big Daddy Roth’s stuff for a dollar in grammar school. Eventually I became a free lance cartoonist and a hippy. I can’t remember which came first.

After awhile I became bored with freelance cartooning (although it is the root of everything I’ve done since) plus waiting for three months to get paid is no fun. I sold many hundreds of cartoons to dozens of different publications. I became interested in airbrush during this time and taught myself how to use one and in a relatively short time was making a good living painting motorcycles, custom vans, murals etc. Eventually I moved to airbrushing T-Shirts and stayed with that for quite awhile. I liked working weekends and having the rest of the week off.

Sometime in the 80’s or maybe the 70’s (I’m not sure) I moved south and continued airbrushing while my interest began to shift to painting in acrylics and oils. I opened an “Art Gallery Boutique” (unheard of at the time) with my then girlfriend, now wife Tina. The gallery boutique turned out to be appalling idea to the traditional art community. To me it just seemed a logical way to make art and not starve. At last I had found my calling. Making art that irritated the art establishment. (Or so I thought) but it wasn’t over yet.

After awhile we sold the gallery and bought a failing silkscreen company for practically nothing and turned it totally around with my T-shirt designs and sparkling personality. During this time I became interested in painting on wood, in fact it became an obsession I could not control. Every time I saw a piece of wood I knew there was a piece of art locked inside it and it was my job as a shaman (The artist is the shaman of the modern world – Joseph Cambell.) to release it and that’s just what I did and will continue to do. Make something dead come to life in another form.

 In 2006 we sold the screen printing company and I have devoted myself to painting on wood full time. I also discovered that fine art galleries didn’t want anything to do with it. I began to seek out those who did and discovered that I was an outsider artist. Happy days are here again. So here I am seeking my bliss and I couldn’t be happier. Oh yeah did I mention I’m a survivor of stage four lung cancer. Whoever thinks the power of love, art and the human spirit are not the great healers’ needs to think again. "

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