Paul Romano is a fine artist and designer working and living in Philadelphia. Romano’s work spans many mediums and aesthetics, nodding to art history and imbued with abstract narrative. He has worked with many aggressive bands across multiple albums, including Mastodon, dälek, Hate Eternal, The Red Chord, and Withered to name a few.

"Emmetarafat" (The Red Chord)
2004, Cyanotype, oil on paper, 8x10”

The Red Chord’s Clients is still in my top favorite projects that I’ve worked on over my career. I spent time in Boston with the band as they wrote the album. In this time I was able to photograph some of the folks (“Clients”) that the album was written about as well as all the members of the band.

Back in my own studio, I cobbled together all of these portraits with snippets from medical textbooks. These were then output as negatives and printed in cyanotype which I then painted over in oil paint. I wanted to reference Victorian hand-painted portraits as well as the haunting portraiture of painter, Frank Auerbach. The goal was to make these other worldly beings that would become archetypes transcending their very terrestrial trials and tribulations."

Available as a museum quality Giclee Print in two sizes.