Life is filled with challenges, celebrations, uncertainty and surprises.
I learned I had synesthesia shortly after first starting to paint. I “hear” color and shape and my love for music plays right into this. My work tends to be colorful and unexpected. I create paintings and artwork with movement, texture and childlike passion. I use oil, acrylic, enamel, pigments and paint using everything from a brush to my hands to a tree limb.
My collections are diverse and well received. I have done commissioned work for collectors, celebrities and
art lovers across the globe.
Stankey’s career has been diverse to say the least.
He went to the University of Dayton and found his passion for the entertainment industry running the college concert venues and booking acts ranging from Bob Dylan and Queen to Earth Wind and Fire and Yes.
After graduation, Stankey moved to New York and began his career as an agent representing personalities including Timothy Leary, Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Wolfe, Abbie Hoffman, PJ O’Rourke, Bobby Seal Oprah and many others.
Stankey was instrumental in creating the TV personality as a brand business. His clients have included Ty Pennington, Shea and Syd McGee, Leanne Ford, Grace Mitchell, Lisa Lillien aka Hungry Girl, Bob Greene, Joy Behar, Amy Bruni and Adam Berry and of course, Joanna Gaines and her husband Chip.
With products in Target, Crate and Barrel, Anthropologie, Sears, At Home, Walmart, Pier One, Nebraska Furniture Market and many others his clients lifestyle designs are seen in millions of homes and have touched millions of lives.
In October of 2018, Stankey went deaf in his left ear overnight and in March of 2020 Stankey contract COViD 19 nearly dying from blood clots causing a pulmonary embolism.
The culmination of these two events triggered an existential crisis and after fighting through it for 8 months on his own, he entered a 90 day trauma treatment program to work through a life time of mental health issues. It was there in treatment on April 12, 2021 that Stankey discovered painting as a way of expressing his emotions, love of life and love of music. Most of his art is abstract and named after music. The shapes and colors he hears come from a condition called synesthesia. He is a true outsider with no formal training.
Currently he has gallery representation in the US, Germany and Spain and his work is being sought after for
commissions and by serious collectors and celebrities.
STANKEY has recently been contracted to create labels for a major CBD brand in the US and has been
signed to design an album cover for a major US recording artist.
Stankey is considered to be one of leading emerging abstract artists in America.