“Glad All Over” Chuck Middlekauff

“Campbell’s Soup has always been one of my favorite meals since I was a kid. I especially like tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches. Mom used to make those for my lunch and sometimes dinner. It tasted good and warmed me up after coming in from playing in the cold.

I love the soup can almost as much as the contents. The simple label design, the lettering, and the red and white colors appeal to me.

Andy Warhol’s soup cans were always fun to look at when I was studying all the pop artists when I was in art school. His works and others inspired me to become a pop artist.

My love for Campbell’s Soup cans inspired me to paint:  “Glad All Over”

One of my concepts for the past few years has been to make a “painting of a painting in progress.” My art tools tended to accumulate on my “masterpiece” as I worked, and I found this very interesting and appealing, so I started painting them into my paintings. I also noticed that the canvas, and my hands and shirt, got pretty messy from the accidental drips, drops, splats, and smearing of the watercolors or acrylics as I worked. I also liked those. So I added them to my paintings, too.

Anyway, my working methods have produced paintings that incorporate and exaggerate my painting process. And my style has evolved into a mixture of chaos and control…or is it controlled chaos? Whatever!

This playful direction in my work is fun, exciting, entertaining, and visually stimulating to me, and I hope the viewer gets it.

Finally, I try to come up with interesting, clever, and fun titles to tie into the visuals of my paintings. For this one, I considered how I would handle a portrait of a can of soup and say how eating a bowl of it makes me feel.

I always listen to 50s and 60s rock and roll music while painting in my studio…it energizes me. When I heard The Dave Clark Five’s song, “Glad All Over” I hit on the perfect solution for the title of this painting. I always felt, and still do feel glad all over when I eat Campbell’s tomato soup.