sunshine daygl☮︎ deforest

ImOn Gallery Opening Fri, Jan 30th @ 5:00 with special musical performance by Kevin Burt

 On the Artist:

      Bob “Bobby D” DeForest was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa but moved to

Southern California with his father and step-mother in the early 1960’s. It was while in California that Bob developed his love of music. Sealed by a Jimi Hendrix performance at the Newport ‘69 Festival, Bob never looked back and his pursuit of a substantial vinyl collection was born. Today his collection consists of tens of thousands of albums and CD’s.

Bob returned to Cedar Rapids and graduated from Washington High School in 1973. While attending WHS, Bob dabbled in pottery with some of his pieces shown at The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. But Bob set the art work aside as he focused on music and traveled the country attending as many concerts and music festivals as possible. Since 1988, Bob has been in faithful attendance at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival; in 2008, he was inducted into the Iowa Blues Hall of Fame; and, since its inception in the early '90's, he has been the Master of Ceremonies for Bluesmore, and was the Master of Ceremonies for daBluesapalooza where his painting Gator Boogie was selected for the festival t-shirt. Bob is a board member of the Linn County Blues Society.

While Bob is an interior/exterior painter by trade, he is also the DJ behind

KCCK’s Saturday night shows Da Blues, Da Blues And Beyond, The Crawfish

Circuit, and The Melting Pot which have been airing Saturday nights since

1992. Bob’s multimedia art work is pulled from and largely influenced by the City of New Orleans, as well as album covers, festival posters including the psychedelic poster artists of the '60's and '70's, and all things musical. With a basement full of paint and canvases at hand, Bob began exploring artistic painting in the fall of 2017, following a heart scare. Since that time, his work has morphed into a variety of artistic styles. His work has been shown at Brewhemia, The Shores Building and Creative Artists Annual Art Show and Sale.

Bob DeForest

Groov-a-liscious Objects