This was an early version of JMe’s forays into repurposed materials and 3D elements in relation to the painted surface. These paintings often used crushed Plexiglas that JMe would pound on his studio floor with a sledge hammer from discarded jewelry pieces. He would compose these sharp and highly textured surfaces and adhere them with paint or various acrylic mediums. A combination of various colors and paint fluidity would react to these jangled planes to create unusual flows and absorption patterns creating remarkable effects.

The painting is titled after the quaint fern bar standard popularized by the likes of Doris Day, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. It Had To Be You has a humorous subtext, a monotony of broken Plexiglas jewelry “YOU” pieces create a camouflage of surface debris hiding the “one” unique and whole “YOU” piece. Thus, your eyes “wander around” and you finally find someone like “YOU.” The marmalade orange underpainting and red fragments compliments the lyrical “Blue” and mood of the song making this intimate painting smoldering in sensuality and abundant in personality.