LIFE OF ARTIST: DIANNE MEINKE

American Pride Magazine: http://www.americanpridemagazine.com/culture/dianne_meinke/

Several years ago my dear friend and booking agent Cosmo Ohms introduced me to an associate of his, Bliss Van den Heuvel. Bliss was an art entrepreneur, and as I understand he made his first millions at an incredibly young age on an antique resale item. Bliss would seek out and then resale priceless rare art and artifacts. He had acquired the original Hendrix art in a closed auction. It was a bit of fluke. One of the storage containers he bid on used to belong to Jimi. There could have been nothing inside, but to his surprise, there was a chest filled with sketch books of his fine art. Bliss began his search for a way he could share Jimi’s art with the world. He sought out others who could embrace the vision to bring the largest known fine art collection of Jimi Hendrix to his fans worldwide. He wanted Jimi’s fans to know that Jimi was much more than a music icon, world renowned guitarist but also a fine artist as well.

As a guitarist, musician and avid fan, I decided to take on the project initially because of the profound respect I had for Jimi as an innovative inspiration to my own music and life.

Coupled with a tremendous opportunity to develop my own artistic branding skills, I saw this as training ground for where I wanted to take my own art.