After a long day at work, who doesn't want to snack and relax.
Painting is how Harry Kalenberg unwinds.
“I don't know how to explain it. I just, I'm just hooked. It's a drug,” Kalenberg said.
Some people paint landscapes. Some paint people. Kalenburg paints popcorn.
Call him the Picasso of popcorn, or call him whatever you want, just nothing corny.
Photos: Plano Man is the ‘Picasso of Popcorn’
Kalenberg says he spends hours staring at popcorn every night.
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“Once you start adding color everything comes to life,” he said sitting at a desk filled with popcorn and colored pens.
In 30 years of painting, Kalenburg has a healthy collection of ‘pop art.'
There's a sumo wrestler, someone being tortured, Santa Claus, a snowman, Jeff Bazos, a Playboy bunny, bald eagle, Donald Trump, Abraham Lincoln, Mickey Mouse, a fortune teller and even Elvis Presley which was painted 30 years ago.
Each piece is preserved in polyurethane then perched atop a toothpick for display.
Kalenburg says the idea popped in his head while watching a movie with his wife, Esther.
“I told him he's crazy, stop playing with your popcorn, with your food,” said Esther Kalenberg.
“They ask me what do you smoke? I said can you imagine if I did smoke what I’d see,” said Kalenberg.
A single kernel, he says, sells for as much as $300. Kalenburg says his pieces are displayed in Ripley's Believe it or Not locations worldwide.
“I want to leave a legacy, that I’ve done something that nobody else has done,” he said.
