These pics probably look better placed side by side but you get the idea: there's something inherently sexy about a suspended guy working. Top: James Nares; bottom: that bad actor.
Someone should do a James Nares/David Reed battle exhibition. Who does the best zen swirly brush stroke of death?
Nares has it goin' on with the backwards baseball cap, gas mask, and No Wave roots. Reed upped his hipness cred a while back, though, by digitally retro-compositing one of his paintings into the background of an episode of the 1986-88 TV series Crime Story.
Cruise mostly just poses, though some consider him a painter of film.
Update: Tom Cruise vs Maude Lebowsky (hat tip shm)