Painting a Lee Marvin portrait for Jim Jarmusch

People ask me how it was that I ended up painting a portrait of Lee Marvin for Jim Jarmusch's film Coffee and Cigarettes in 2004. Well, as with every painting, there's a story to it. In January 2002, I opened Zito Studio Gallery in a small storefront on Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It was just after the insanity of 9/11