St. Charles Artist Paints Famous Faces

Greta Garbo, Mick Jagger, Natalie Wood and Batman can be found hanging out these days at the .

Fifteen paintings featuring these pop culture icons are part of the latest art exhibit now on display in O'Fallon's Cultural Arts Gallery inside the Spirit Center, 2650 Tri Sports Circle. The paintings by St. Charles artist Michele Besso will be featured through May 27.

"Since I was a kid I've been into drawing. I've always loved it and just kept at it," Besso said.

The artist grew up in New Jersey and won an art award while in school. She credits her high school teacher, Joan Ditiera, as being one of the most influential people in her life.

She was also influenced by neighboring New York's thriving art scene. "I used to go to the art museums all the time," Besso said.

Besso attended the Pratt-Phoenix School of Art in Manhattan and worked on the East Coast doing graphic design, advertising and publishing. "I designed logos for 15 years and did some freelance work on the side," she said. "I did some window designs and over the years have sold paintings--mostly portraits."

Twelve years ago, Besso moved to St. Charles with her husband, Vincent, for his job. At first, switching from the East Coast big city life to the Midwest was quite a culture change for the artist. "I still miss New York, but I love it here," she said.

Besso works out of her home and specializes in portraits. "I love doing faces and people," she said. "Sometimes I make them up, sometimes I work from photos."

For her exhibit, Besso has brought in a number of portraits as well as a few still lifes. Among the portraits are two of actress Natalie Wood, Rolling Stone frontmen Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, two of her aunts recreated from a 1940s black-and-white photograph and her personal favorite--a young Clint Eastwood.

"He's my favorite actor," she said.

Besso had approached the gallery about doing a show last year, said Darren Granaas, O'Fallon's cultural arts coordinator. "I told her we had an art festival in September, and she took part in that."

Granaas looked over Besso's work and found a place for her on the schedule. "She had a couple of nice landscapes I was taken with," he said. "They all had a dreamy quality about them."

Besso's art has been on display throughout the country. She works primarily in oils but also works in acrylics, watercolors, ink and mixed media.

"My favorite would be oil, but I do a lot of acrylic," she said. "It used to be oil was it, but then I found acrylic dries a little faster." This became an issue once when her kittens walked all over one of her oil paintings.

Besso is available for portrait work or other commission painting. For more information call 636-447-0004.

Admission to O'Fallon's Cultural Arts Gallery is free. The gallery is open during the Spirit Center's regular business hours: 5:15 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 5:15 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday; 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday; and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday.