Artist Statement

I was about 17 years old when I watched my first Johnny Depp film. I didn’t know who he was, I had never heard of him before. Nonetheless, I always enjoyed horror movies and pretty much anything that was outside the mainstream that everyone seemed to like. (As a side note, I grew up listening to Van Halen, Elvis Presley, and AC/DC when kids my age were raving about N’SYNC. I was always a little “out there” so to speak) So, when I was browsing the shelves at my local Blockbuster and saw a film called Sleepy Hollow where the plot is about a headless guy on horseback mowing people down with a sword…I was sold. I expected a decent flick with some scares. What I got was a 20 year ongoing fascination with an actor named Johnny Depp.

After Sleepy Hollow, I was hooked. Of course, my next step was to hop on good ol’ reliable AOL dial up internet and find out more. And find out more I did. I started watching his films prior to Sleepy Hollow and I came to truly appreciate his ability to bring his characters to life. I also discovered he was a musician and artist, which only made me admire him more. As you may have noticed, I dabble in the arts a bit myself…

In 2003 when Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl debuted, my friends and I dressed up in our thrift-store/homemade pirate garb and went to the theater (We ended up doing this about 7 times). I was inspired. I picked up my pencils and decided to replicate the original movie poster for the film. And then I kept going…

Fast forward to now (June 14th, 2022) and what I have amassed over the last almost 20 years is a collection of 23 individual pieces depicting Mr. John Christopher Depp. My pride and joy, “white whale” if you will, is the 24x36” oil painting of Jack Sparrow pictured to my top right. With over 200 hours of work, it is my largest piece to date and I only wish for the opportunity for Johnny to see it in person one day.

So that’s my very long winded story of how this collection came into existence. On a personal note to Johnny, if you ever get to see this; Thank you. Thank you for being a phenomenally unique, overall inspirational, and a downright fantastic human being. You give the rest of us weirdos a good name. Cheers and keep on doing what you do.

Much love and respect,
Candy Levatino

PS - Never stop making music. You are incredibly talented and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing you play with Hollywood Vampires. 10/10, will be back again