I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Just between you and me (and, umm, the whole internet), okay?

This painting cost $15:

And it’s an enormous, full-wall, hand-painted original by a well-known artist. Want to know more? I KNOW YOU DO.

The painting is by one Steve Keene, a Brooklyn, NY-based artist whose work has been shown in galleries all over the world, and appears as cover art on albums by bands like Pavement, The Apples in Stereo, Soul Coughing, and Dave Matthews Band. Yet despite all his acclaim and fame, Keene continues to produce artwork designed and priced for the masses, generating multiples of paintings in an assembly-line fashion that would’ve made Andy Warhol proud.

Keene’s technique may be somewhat mechanistic, but the art he produces is colorful, lively, and kinetic, and each piece is different and unique, as his site notes:

Even though they are created as multiples, each of Steve’s paintings is one-of-a-kind. He works constantly, producing walls full of work every day. For him, every painting is part of a single on-going work of art that is now many miles long.

Our home is filled with many SK pieces, all with different themes and moods: a rendition of the Mary Poppins album cover lives in our daughter’s bedroom, while a small painting depicting cowboys around a campfire resides in our kitchen. Each of those cost less than a latte at Starbucks, and the admiration and interest from friends and family generated by these works in our home is infinitely more durable than even the best caffeine buzz.

So what are you waiting for? Head on over to Keene’s website and buy some real art!

Read more about Steve Keene in this piece from The New York Times.