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Ron gets into the mood as a living sculpture called"The Thinker II."
An art exhibition inspired by the life of Ron Artest? Yep, that really happened! Lovable Bad***: Artists on Artest opened on Saturday at Narwhal Art Projects in Toronto and ran until Monday evening. Cartoonist/illustrator and Raptors season-ticket holder Steve Manale thought up the concept. “Beyond being charismatic … Ron Artest could be the single most honest and open figure in pop culture. I think it’s nearly impossible for someone in the public to reinvent themselves from villain to hero, and him doing that should be celebrated," said Manale.
Pieces from 30 different local artists were available for purchase and with a little help from the old Google search engine, we were able to locate some photos of the art for sale. We're partial toward the Ron Artest Scrilla album, but the Rainbow-breathing Artest is also pretty awesome. Unfortunately, we didn't see anything from his dodgeball period.
Even more more awesome, because the Lakers were visiting the Raptors on Saturday, Artest stopped by the exhibition stayed for almost an hour. “It was fun. I didn’t know what to think about it at first. It was definitely special. It was unexpected, overwhelming. It was cool. That was my first major in college, art, actually. Then I dropped it and went into architecture, then I dropped that and went into math. I finished off in math. That’s why I thought it was kind of cool. I didn’t finish my major. To get an exhibit, it was kind of crazy.” And if you were curious, he too enjoyed the Michal Jackson tribute piece.
We know what you're thinking, "When will we see the Pau Gasol exhibition?" Your guess is as good as ours, but you can bet we'll be first on line for that. We're still bummed we missed this.