Adam Bucci is a Los Angeles-based actor and visual artist making a name for himself with his painted denim jackets.
Matt Bomer recently Instagrammed the jacket Bucci made for him featuring a portrait of Sigourney Weaver as Ripley in the “Alien” franchise. “Guardians of the Galaxy” star Karen Gillan also showed off a Bucci design of a majestic lion’s head on Instagram.
Bucci, 37, began his side business — officially called Small Town Weirdo — two years ago, but he refocused his energy on painting when acting jobs and the development of a werewolf film he’s working on with his husband, Adam Huss, slowed down due to the pandemic.
“After the initial shock of lockdown wore off I needed a way to stay creative,” Bucci tells Variety. “I dusted off my paints and brushes, invested in 20 jackets and got to work.” Ranging in price from $300 to $2,000, commissions can take up to 13 weeks to complete.
“Fabric can really soak up the paint, and it takes extra long to build colors that will pop because of all the layering and the drying time that’s needed in between,” Bucci explains. Most of his work at the moment pays homage to genre films.
“My husband and I are big nerds when it comes down to it,” Bucci says. “We love monsters; we love superheroes; we collect figures that are all throughout the apartment. We even have a giant five-foot canvas of the ‘Creature From the Black Lagoon’ in our living room.”
For more information, go to smalltownweirdo.com.