Tennessee Loveless, born in Greenville, SC, is a contemporary pop artist whose bold use of color and pattern evokes an immediate visual impact to the viewer, but also creates a poetic irony when one considers the fact that Loveless is severely colorblind. Despite many obstacles throughout his life and career he has persevered in pursuing his career as an artist. He is driven by his passion for painting people and iconic fictional characters in a way that strikes an emotional and nostalgic connection through the power of the one thing he is blind to. Tennessee’s inability to distinguish most hues has never swayed him from creating art. If any thing, his disconnect from this in his early years made him obsessed with the forming of patterns, objects and shapes. He became attracted to the destruction of white space and became captivated with the idea of filling anything lacking in form with pattern. Later in life, he began attaching color to his subjects as he learned in color theory books which hues complimented or contrasted each other appropriately. He also communicates hue choices through an objective and synesthetic nature. The essence of his work is largely dedicated to the emotional pull and story telling element of color, expression, and pattern, and mostly importantly, the crossing of the senses. Leaving Savannah College of Art and Design for his lack of conventional color usage, Tennessee graduated from a small business college in Atlanta and moved to San Francisco in search of a new life in art. Down in the drag bars of South of Market, Tennessee began drawing on bar napkins, which quickly got the attention of the patrons and performers of the area. Tennessee began painting drag queens as his focus, and quickly his work spread like wildfire through the gay community. The World of Wonder Gallery out in Los Angeles asked for his work in 2008 for a retrospective on drag for their show “Ru Paul’s Drag Race, Season 1”, and through the PR of this event, Tennessee was picked up by Disney to become an artist for their fine art division. In 2011, he created art for “Other Than: For You To See” an official selection at the Cannes Film Festival. He has been in licensing and production development for the Walt Disney Company, helping facilitate successful health and beauty products with MAC Cosmetics, OPI, Johnson & Johnson, Procter and Gamble, Benefit, and Urban Decay. He has created officially licensed art for both Disney and Warner Brothers. Most notably his 10x10x10 series, based on one hundred silhouettes of Mickey Mouse that express an artist’s journey, exploring the history of the icon, while bringing global, societal, and personal context to the imagery. As an art explorer, he has been an artist in residence in San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Las Vegas (with the “Loveless Collective” Pop up gallery in 2014), Chicago, Paris, Berlin, and Athens, Georgia. He has also toured the world as part of creating his 10x10x10 series. Tennessee was named one of the “People of the Year” from Instinct Magazine, and “Best of Sacramento” in Sactown Magazine. He was also the featured artist for the 2015 winter color issue in Anthology Magazine, and was the artist with SpeedoUSA for their 2016 Summer Olympics collection.. Tennessee is celebrating the release of his first retrospective book written by Dave Bossert, titled “The Art of Tennessee Loveless, The Mickey Mouse 10 x 10 x 10 Contemporary Pop Art Series”, which will entail the entirety of his work thus far with Disney Publishing. He recently completed the project of painting influential icons entitled “Art Outsiders” out in Washington D.C. Lastly Tennessee is returning to painting drag queens with his worldwide socio-geographical portrait series called “Drag Landscapes”, and “Know Where”, a expedition themed multi paneled piece project featuring his “Sketchwave” aesthetic.