Art historians are often excited to explain how paintings came to be. I absolutely love that. I took several courses in college and watch different art analysts all the time.

So, it's time to give you some Frank G. Marcello analysis. I lived it. I want to give you some background on the Jesus paintings. Many people ask why so many? Both Frank and Irene were into series painting. Frank painted Jesus. Irene painted swimmers underwater.  All magnificent. But Frank's most intense paintings, at least to me, were the Jesus paintings.

In the early 1970s, Frank was the cover artists for Whitaker Publishing, a thriving Christian publisher. He was quite taken with the Born Again movement then. In fact, though non-religious in later life, he was soaking up the folks' enthusiasm, and it affected him quite a lot.

In fact, one of his very old friends' daughter was saved by that movement. She had been a hard-core drug user, and watched her younger brother die from a drug overdose. That changed everything for her, and she was very much into the whole Christian philosophy. It had become her redemption and her savior.

So, owing to this fascination, in his spare time, Frank wanted to do portraits of Jesus. He enlisted friends of the family and even men who worked for him on his properties and on the estate to pose for those portraits.  Christ Our Lord, Christ Interrogative, and Christ Intensity are all of one friend of the family. Bobby did look like Jesus in those days. What surprised me is that he sat for so many of the Christ paintings, but he loved talking to Frank, who was always ready for any kind of intellectual discussion.

But there are more portraits that we haven't even shown. Those are of his employees, his crew, whatever. Frank often came home grubby from working with the guys, too. He loved tinkering and when he wasn't applying his talent, he tinkered a LOT.

In that period, both Frank and Irene were into junk sculpture. Frank made crosses for all of us out of some kind of metal. I say "some kind" because they were dark and painted gold, but only in places. He probably picked the metal up on one of his many, many visits to thrift stores. He found treasure in them every time he went. The crosses were charming. I know I have it still, but I haven't a clue where. Maybe I'll find it one day and show it to you. Frank was a special man.