Tommy Cheng in his studio

				Tommy Cheng lives in Washington Heights, in the basement of a church. He's a very friendly guy and a fun artist, and if you are in New York City, you should definitely go meet him. Tommy had never really done any artwork in his life until he took a trip to Jamaica. There he was fascinated by the work of the local intuitive painters. Upon returning home, he decided to try his hand at creating works like the ones he had seen in the islands.
		Blues Singer cutouts

Willie Mays portraits

Tommy soon realized that trying to imitate someone else's style wasn't going to work. He then started doing his own paintings, works depicting people he knew and portraits of those he admired. As a longtime Yankee fan, his beloved team has provided a great deal of inspiration (especially during their recent championship runs). As a Mets fan, I tried to convince him of the error of his ways, but to no avail. As you can see from the works pictured here, Tommy's paintings are very lively, and a must have for any die hard baseball fan (myself included). While Tommy predominantly paints Yankees, he does branch out here and there, including a wonderful pair of portraits of my favorite player, Willie Mays.

	Benny Carter
						Jessie and Ronald Cooper