TONY PACHECO BIO

Tony Pacheco was born on June 1, 1920 in the old whaling city of New Bedford, Massachusetts. His entire life was dedicated to art and music.

He began drawing and painting at the age 5 and was so precocious that he won many art awards during his early school years.

He joined the U.S. Army at the age of 20 and during World War II painted much of the nose art on the fighter jet planes that attacked Germany. It was reported that one of those airplanes was shot down and though the pilot survived, the section of the plane that was not destroyed and contained Tony’s artwork on the nose, was taken by a Nazi Colonel for his own private art collection and kept in a warehouse until the war was over.

In 1948 Tony attended the prestigious Swain School of Art and Design in New Bedford and graduated 4 years later having won many national prizes.

He was also an accomplished guitar player, performing all over New England, and from 1952 until 1980 owned a music store and teaching center where both music and art were taught.

He painted in many styles, restlessly searching for new challenges and sold many works. It is rumored that one of the Kennedy family has one.

He maintained a child’s creativity all of his life. One day he would paint something surrealistic, the next day he would paint cartoon characters. The next day he would paint a landscape or portrait and the day after he might paint his own version of a Vargas style girl.

He even made sculptures out of wood, cans, bottles or any common pieces of what some people would consider junk and would turn them into awesome pieces of art much like artists working in the currently popular school called " Outsider Art." He was far ahead of his time. I even have an oil truck he made in 1950 using a large Campbell Soup can. He was 15 years ahead of Andy Warhol.

His passing on January 6, 2005 stopped all that great creativity. Thankfully, most art survives the artist and between his 5 children we have a lot of it.

It is now time for the world to see and share the Art of Tony Pacheco.