d’Angelo came to Amsterdam in 2015 to play a couple of Paradiso dates, I immediately started to think it would be great if I could do an art show with the pages of the Comic Book I did for Kendra Foster, who was doing backing vocals in d’Angelo’s band and my friend Doeshka Vrede and her partner Michiel managed to secure a whole floor in the Vault17 Gallery, right opposite Paradiso!
I printed all the pages on big sheets and posted them on the walls. I had a live set in the gallery with my buddys Heyn Linger on guitar, Patrick Wiebers on drums, and Markus Mann and Jay Colin on vocals, and we jammed in the gallery and the visitors had their eyes and ears peeled. The main intent was to have D’Angelo, Kendra and the whole band visit the exhibit… but they missed their plane that night. Of course they saw the prints the next day when we brought them to the Paradiso catacombs. d’Angelo took the print with the Jimi Hendrix appearance, Jesse Johnson, the (The Time Guitarist) took one as well, and Steve mcQueen, director of 12 years a slave, also has a print, signed by Kendra.
I hope to finish the book in the near future and do a presentation with Kendra and Shonda. It’s the best way to combine music and art for me and I’m proud to have them among my friends !
Marc Sokpolie 
Leave a comment