With Plenty To Offer - 25" x 19"- gouache Estimate: $3,000 - $4,000 / Reserve

Sad Clown - 5" x 10"- gouache Estimate: $300 - $400 / Reserve

Mitch O'Connell has been making a living drawing for over 20 years. He first came to Chicago in 1980 to attend the School of the Art Institute and the American Academy of Art. He has done illustration work for scores of magazines including Playboy, Entertainment Weekly, heavy Metal, Newsweek, Time, Rolling Stone, Spin, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. His art has also been on the cover of dozens of CDs. In short, it would be nearly impossible not to have run across Mitch's art.

On the flip side, his art has been exhibited has been in galleries around the world, resulting in write-ups in publications like The Boston Globe, The New Art Examiner, Juxtapoz, Art? Alternatives and The New York Press.

Tattoo, The tattoo-laden imagery of Mitch's paintings has also received attention in tattoo publications, such as Tattoo Savage, International Tattoo Art, Skin & Ink, Taetowier Magazin, and Tattoo Revue.

Two collections of his art have been published: Good Taste Gone Bad in 1993 and Pwease Wuv Me in 1998. Reviewers have said, "Pure Kitsch!"-PBS, "His art snap crackles and pops with sex, iconography and black velvet paintings"-Boston Globe; "A genius, clever, playful, wild and witty"-Chicago Tribune; "Entertaining drawings that plumb the depth of bad taste"-Booklist.

Mitch's most recent projects have been to design sets of tattoo flash ("flash" refers to designs displayed on the walls of tattoo studios for customers to choose from). Each set consists of eleven color sheets containing some 80 designs. Says Mitch, "Every month or so I'd get a photo in the mail of someone who had had an illustration of mine tattooed on themselves, from small tattoos to full back pieces. It was such a huge compliment to hear from a person that chose to carry one of my drawings for the rest of their lives. I have always been inspired by tattoo art, especially the old school style, so I decided to work up designs that really were intended as tattoos. I wanted not just paintings or drawings of mine that people liked and took to their tattooist, but drawings that would make folks who saw them say, 'Man! That's a tattoo!' I kept the designs rooted in the traditional, but threw in a lot of my own ideas and style as well."

Mitch lives in Chicago with his wife Ilsabe and their children Leo and Kieran. He continues to crank out illustrations for magazines, newspapers and shows.

To see more of Mitch's work, check out www.mitchoconnell.com