By Tara Kyle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
CHELSEA — For artist Trey Speegle, the process of building one of the world's largest collections of vintage paint by number pictures began with a tragedy.
In 1992, Speegle helped his friend, Saturday Night Live head writer Michael O'Donoghue, organize an exhibit for O'Donoghue's 200 artworks made from paint by numbers, a fill-in-the-blanks form of painting typically used by children that was developed in Michigan after World War II.
Two years later, after O'Donoghue died of a brain aneurysm, his widow gave the paint-by-number works to Speegle. Today, the collection totals around 3,000.
Speegle's artistic adaptations of some of these works are now on view at the Benrimon Contemporary's new exhibit "It's Not About You." Some are placed together in elaborate collages — a dozen images of Jesus alongside puppies and landscapes, while others are silkscreened or installed in shadow boxes.
Most bear unpainted sections that spell out a message. In a huge collage of the sentence, "Look with Wonder at That Which is Before You," the word "You" is unpainted.
"It's taking what in the past was seen as this lowbrow art, and making it highbrow," said gallery owner Leon Benrimon, whose personal favorites include one of the show's simplest works, an autumn scene bearing the message "Thank You."
The show's title, "It's Not About You," appears on a vibrant painting featuring a clown, revelers and a castle. Speegle said he was inspired to create that paintingthrough his work with the nonprofit LGBT suicide prevention program The Trevor Project.
Another highlight of Speegle's 20-year-career so far working with paint by numbers was his contribution toward the organization of a Smithsonian retrospective.
With two decades of work in the genre under his belt, Speegle said he can imagine exploring paint by numbers for another quarter century.
He said he's drawn to the way examining the individual elements of line and color allows us to "see almost as a child."
But he turns the traditional paint by numbers on its head by throwing out the non-confrontational subject matter, and inserting bigger challenges of interpretation for his audience.
"I can subvert the meaning," Speegle said, "and get the viewer to question their own ideas and beliefs about the world at large."
The exhibit also features a pop-up store selling plates, pins and puzzles from Speegle's collaborations with Anthropologie Home and Fred Perry. Speegle said his turn to commercially-available art might be seen by some as a diversion, but he sees it as a way to reach out to people who might not be able to afford investing in original artwork.
"The art world can be so insular... it rarely reaches the general public, except for maybe a museum blockbuster," Speegle said. "If people who see this show like the works and ideas I've represented, I wanted to give them a take-away."
"It's Not About You" runs through March 5 at the Benrimon Contemporary, on the second floor at 514 W. 24th St.
