Queens Tribune

Everybody has a favorite band, or two or three. For Rick Sansone it’s the Beatles.

After all, it’s only evident. Take a look at the bookshelf in his Astoria apartment. Scanning the jam-packed rows of songbooks, a thick white book with black glossy lettering down its side is squeezed between frayed songbook after frayed songbook.

“Yeah, the flag kind of gets in the way, but I have everything from Zeppelin to show tune sheets in there,” Sansone said, pointing to his left.

Pulling back the British flag draped over the wooden bookshelf, Sansone slid his finger over the thick white book, the black letters of which read: the Beatles.

“And over there,” he said directing his attention to the adjacent wall, “I’ve got all the records. I’ve got a lot in there, including most of my Beatles records I bought years back.”

Growing up in the 1980s, Sansone was subjected to the radio, which happened to be blaring the top Billboard hits like Toni Basil’s ‘Mickey’ and Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical.” But unlike his classmates at the time, Sansone wasn’t interested in letting those tunes penetrate and break down his adolescent eardrums. He was looking for something different with a stronger base, something that would have a positive effect, rather than a mind-numbing one. So he checked out the Beatles.

“It was like I bought one record, fell in love with it. Bought another record. Fell in love with it,” explained Sansone. “I wasn’t partial to any particular era. I even moved on to their solo projects. And there’s no saying, at least for me, that one era for them was better than another, be it as the Beatles or their solo stuff.”

There is one era, though, that plays to Sansone’s skill. The Sergeant Pepper era.

Hanging on the wall in his living room, against a light plum-hued wall, is the illustration “Pepper.”

“I wanted to look at the psychedelic era with this one,” he said walking towards the pen and ink illustration. “I’ve done a lot of other sketches on the band, but this one as a whole, for the techniques I was using, needed to be in the psychedelic era.”

The bright yellow of John’s military coat juxtaposed to the vibrant pink of Ringo’s were penned onto the white background, as Sansone’s sketching style, distorted, yet defined Paul’s round drooping eyes and George’s thick mustache. A continuous flow of energy can be seen squirming and rhythmically beating behind the glass that pins the portrait to that light-plum hues wall.

Gazing at the piece, Sansone crossed his arms against his stomach and began to smile. “They are my favorite band though,” he said.

“Pepper” is featured in the new compilation “Beatles Art: Fantastic New Artwork of the Fab Four”, published by Boxigami Books. “Beatles Art” showcases works from artists and illustrators around the world. “Pepper” is among a select group that has been chosen to be a foldout, glossy reproduction in the book. It can be found at most major online and brick-and-mortar book sellers.