Vance DeGeneres is a self-taught artist. His inspiration was James Thurber, a brilliant humorist of the early to mid twentieth century. Thurber also drew cartoons, but he was self-taught and almost blind so his drawings were crude, but still funny. Vance figured that if Thurber could publish cartoons that were that badly drawn, maybe he could too. Vance taught himself to draw through trial and error, terribly at first, and then with practice his skills increased dramatically to just poorly. He began painting in 1989 and has sold paintings in a number of exhibitions in Los Angeles. Being a comedy writer, Vance injects his sense of humor and wonder into his paintings.

For his upcoming show at Aidan Savoy Gallery, Nudes and Robots, Vance DeGeneres combined two of the things he loves most. Robots represent innocence and hope, and nudes represent something beautiful but forbidden. “Anytime you combine something innocent with something forbidden it becomes more interesting,” says Vance.

This will be his first show in New York City.

Besides being a painter Vance is a television writer/producer/performer and was a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and has written for a bunch of TV shows, most recently the 2007 Academy Awards. He’s also the rhythm guitarist for Cowboy Mouth, a rock band with numerous albums. Originally from New Orleans, Vance DeGeneres lives in Los Angeles.