Girlfriend Dreams (Joan Mitchell), Homie Dreams Suite
Joan Mitchell taught Everhart the importance of the mark (an important theme in his own work).
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, themselves, 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.