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Many artists look to nature and landscapes for inspiration.

Others focus on their dreams or nightmares.

The driving inspiration behind much of Greensboro native Xris Kessler's paintings comes from pop culture.

"I think it's because those are the things that influence me," says Kessler, who lives in Wilmington. "What inspires other artists? Look through the centuries at other artists, it could be one thing or another, like an idol."

But the pop culture idols Kessler paints are far from mainstream. Instead, he aims his canvas for more cult or fringe icons such as "Blue Velvet" filmmaker David Lynch, the music of the English rock band the Cure, and most recently, Big Edie and Little Edie Beale.

Long before the invention of reality TV, the Beales were reality celebrities in their own right. They were the real life mother and daughter who starred in the 1975 documentary "Grey Gardens." Lost in both time and space, Big Edie and her daughter Little Edie lived in the squalor of a decaying mansion in the Hamptons ---- the documentary's namesake ---- even though they were related to wealthy aristocrats, including former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who was their niece and first cousin.

"They're great personalities; they're strange and definitely eccentric," Kessler says. "I guess what they represent is that you see the way they're living ---- they're living in squalor, what they used to have, the era they came from, that high society, and they lost everything ---- and that these two women, a mother and daughter, still have a very strong bond."

To commemorate these cult film icons, Kessler created "Staunch," a series of eight paintings inspired by the Beales and "Grey Gardens." The Greensboro opening for the exhibit will be an interactive experience featuring models in swimsuits, live music from a grand piano and indoor acrobatics.

Studio B will host this gala event on Friday.

A self-described "survivor" of Smith High School, when Kessler first watched "Grey Gardens" in the early '90s, he says it had become something of an underground legend. The film lacked the attention it has now that Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange starred in the Emmy-winning HBO movie based on the documentary, and legit VHS copies of "Grey Gardens" were next to impossible to find. Kessler was forced to watch a bootlegged copy at the home of a close friend.

"To actually finally see this cult film, living in Greensboro at that time, there wasn't the midnight movies where you could actually go and see it," Kessler says. "It was one of those, 'I found a copy of a copy of a copy filmed in a movie theater in New York' versions of 'Grey Gardens.'

"I think that was part of the thrill of it, too, is I had been initiated in what Grey Gardens is, and this is that underground film."

Kessler delighted in the onscreen portrayals Big Edie and Little Edie gave of themselves as a pair of real-life Ms. Havishams from "Great Expectations." A divorced widow and her temperamental old-maid daughter, they never allowed their dire financial situation to dim their eccentric world view and vivid personalities.

And while Kessler admits the pair were quite strange in the movie with the Beales' bizarre fashion choices and almost macabre song and dance numbers, he views the film as a portrait of two strong women who cared for each other deeply.

"I see these strong women and as a gay man, I can relate to that," Kessler says. "You have to be strong. It's almost a street smart sense they have about them for the world."

The idea to create a series of paintings based on the Beales and "Grey Gardens" came more than 15 years after Kessler first saw the film. A friend of his was hosting a fashion show at her husband's bar inspired by the clothing Little Edie had worn in the movie, and she asked Kessler if he would create a large portrait from the movie to hang in front of the runway curtain. The artist obliged, and when he showed the completed work to his friends, the owner of the bar was so impressed that he asked Kessler if he would paint more.

"I ended up with eight paintings and filled up his whole bar space," Kessler says.

What makes Kessler's "Grey Gardens" paintings so remarkable is that while it would have been easy to mock or parody the Beales for their eccentricities, Kessler opts for reverence. Within his work, both Big and Little Edie look proud and heroic. He also takes certain quotes ---- or Beale-isms ---- from the context of the film and layers them on top of the images as a tribute to their inner strength.

Such quotes include the more memorable lines like Little Edie's, "I only mark the hours that shine," as well as some of Kessler's personal favorites that many diehard fans of the documentary don't usually remember.

"I don't think his work makes fun of them at all," says Walter Newkirk, author of "MemoraBEALEia: A Private Scrapbook About Edie Beale of Grey Gardens First Cousin To First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis."

This was especially important to Newkirk, because he had known Little Edie personally before she passed away in 2002.

"I guess the reason I wanted to write about the Beales and 'Grey Gardens' is because I saw a different person, and I knew a different person than the one you saw in the movie," says Newkirk.

Newkirk believes the Beales were largely misunderstood by the public becuase of the way they were edited and presented in the film. For instance, the Little Edie Beal that Newkirk knew personally did not wear flamboyant outfits like she did in front of the cameras.

"She didn't understand what a documentary was, and her perception of a documentary was that you have a 'costume,'" Newkirk says.

And since Kessler's Grey Gardens paintings praise the Beales instead of mocking them, Newkirk asked the artist if he could publish five of them in his upcoming second Beale tome, "Letters of Little Edie Beale: Grey Gardens and Beyond," due later this month.

Perhaps the great irony of Kessler's "Grey Gardens" paintings is that while his love for the movie inspired eight of his paintings, Kessler can no longer watch the movie.

"Every time I watch it now, I'm like 'That needs to be a painting, this needs to be a painting,'" Kessler says. "If I just continue to do 'Grey Gardens' paintings, I don't want to be stuck in this, 'That guy does 'Grey Gardens" paintings and that's all he does.'"

So it's time for Kessler to move on to another cult film, one which also focuses on a strong female character.

"'Barbarella,' that's kind of like the next thing," Kessler says. "I love that movie and think there should be a series of 'Barbarella' paintings."

Contact Joe Scott at movieshowjoe@gmail.com.