A Plano artist finds big inspiration on the smallest canvas.
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.
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.
