Grey Gardens Art

Pacifico A. Palumbo is a nationally known artist whose work has been displayed in galleries across New England and in New York. He got his start as an art director in New York City, then opened a popular neon gallery, called Say It In Neon, in the Village in 1978 through 2003. After seeing the documentary film Grey Gardens, he was inspired to paint some of the memorable scenes from it. The film documents the everyday lives of two reclusive, upper-class women, a mother and daughter both named Edith Beale, who lived in poverty at Grey Gardens, their derelict mansion in the wealthy Georgica Pond neighborhood of East Hampton, New York. Born to wealth and high social status, Big Edie and Little Edie as they were known had suffered financial reverses, but preferred to remain in the slowly decaying family mansion, cultivate an eccentric lifestyle of penury, and court a wealth of friends of considerable artistic and literary renown. The original documentary can be seen on UTube and a remake of the movie featuring Drew Barrymore as Little Edie and Jessica Lang as Big Edie premiered on Hulu in 2009 The film made a big impression on Palumbo, inspiring him to paintings based on the most memorable scenes. "So now," he says, "I have fifteen paintings that I created based on the Gray Gardens scenes. I also created a website called Grey Gardens Art on Facebook and I am currently looking for a gallery in East Hampton where the mansion Grey Gardens is located . . . I hop you enjoy my paintings. They were certainly a delight for me to paint." Palumbo and his partner Michael Collins, live in Colrain, Massachusetts where they host an art gallery in their home.