See if you can follow all of the connections in this post…

First a little backstory, my studio /gallery/ shop where I sit right now was a former Sinclair gas station in Jeffersonville, New York that filled up cars after the legendary Woodstock concert 55 years ago this weekend.

*Woodstock took place in Bethel on Yasgur’s Farm, not in the city of Woodstock, the original. host city*

Speegle Studio, Gallery 52 & The RePOP Shop in Jeffersonville NY houses many collections including some 3000+ paint by number paintings. It was once a service station that gassed up cars after Woodstock.

I’m an artist and my work is based on vintage paint by number paintings, the core collection of 250 which I inherited from the widow of Michael O’Donoghue, Cheryl Hardwick, known affectionately to her friends as Quack. Michael was the original head writer of Saturday Night Live and famously was with John Belushi in the very first cold open of the show in 1975. Quack was the music director on SNL for 25 years.

This year is the 50th anniversary of SNL and Ivan Reitman’s son, Jason has dramatized getting that first episode on the air ,half a century ago in a new film, Saturday Night.

*A drama about a comedy show's serious origin story. Jason Reitman's "Saturday Night" is out Oct. 11.*

30 years ago I was in the west of Ireland at Michael & Quack’s Georgian Irish manor, Garranbaun House, celebrating her 50th birthday on August 13, 1994 with Woodstock-themed party. I created a hippie crash pad in the stairs landing bedroom for the festivities and also made a cake featuring an updated version of the original poster. (See below)

Fast forward to Nov 4, 1994 of that year and Michael suffered a massive aneuyrism and died suddenly. His passing was eulogized by Bill Murray that week live on SNL followed by the cast, old and new, gathering for an Irish wake at the couple’s West 16th street brownstone.

Quack, as I mentioned, gifted to me Michael’s paint by number collection which I grew to one of the largest in the world, numbering over 3000. I have gone on to create artwork for the last 20+ years for Michelle Obama’s charity at the New Museum, Stella McCartney’s runway show in Paris, Anthpologie, as well as gallery and museum shows across the world.

To say Michael, Quack and paint by number changed my life, would be a wild understatement.

*Quack was known as Starshine that night. She’s wearing the same dress she wore to Woodstock 25 years before.*

*My cake design featured altered text as well as a duck (for Quack) instead of the Woodstock bird*

*Quack with Michael O’Donoghue, aka Mr. Mike in his version of hippie with Irish birthday party guests cutting the cake.*

Five years ago I organized an exhibit in my gallery to make the summer of love and revolution, titled 69/19: Woodstock, Stonewall & the Moon Landing. I’m from Houston and my school mates Dads worked at NASA (my pal Ronnie Cook’s Dad packed the Moon fFlag!) plus I’m gay, so all three mean a great deal to me.

*Scooter LaForge’s Marsha Johnson & Martha Rich’s The Brown Acid is Not Specifically Too Good*

*Jack Early, 69 (the wallpaper was in his childhood bedroom)*

In July of this year, my pal singer/ songwriter, Jason Mraz, played Bethel Woods, the Woodstock site, and the Woodstock Museum. Jason has been collecting my work for a dozen plus years (he has more work of mine than any other collector) and he came to my studio before his concert and bought the painting I created for 69/19.

Titled Get High, it covers both Woodstock & the Moon Landing. I had it framed locally and as timing would have it, it was shipped on the exact 55 anniversary of Woodstock to Mraz’s avocado farm outside San Diego. There the message will likely inspire all those who see it in his home recording studio. A lot of pot smoke wafts through that air, my sources tell me.

Quack just turned 80, Woodstock is 55 and the building I’m in, the former Sinclair gas station, was originally built 100 years ago as a grain and feed.

See, synchronicity! Everything links up.