Walking into artist Trey Speegle’s RePop Shop is a little bit like going back to the future. Filled with vintage paint-by-number kits and paintings, many of which have been transformed into art that can be described as ”pop conceptualism,” the area is a wonderful mix of old and new.

Speegle, a contemporary American painter, combines vintage paint-by-number art with word art and inspirational text. Originally from Texas, he moved to New York in the 1980s and has had a career that is a unique mix of commercial and fine art, including work as an art director for publications like Vogue, Vanity Fair and Us Weekly. His interest in paint-by-number paintings began in the 1990s, when he helped organize an exhibit for his good friend Michael O’Donoghue, an original head writer of “Saturday Night Live,” who at the time had over 250 vintage paint-by-number paintings. That show led to a reexamination of the paint-by-numbers phenomenon, which in turn led to a 2001 retrospective at the Smithsonian Museum featuring many of the 250 paintings that Speegle inherited after O’Donoghue’s untimely passing. Eventually, his collection expanded to over 3,000 paintings. It is considered one of the world’s largest collection of vintage paint-by-number paintings to date.

Speegle now sources these original images as material and inspiration in the creation of his own work, using verbal affirmations and word play. His work explores themes of hope, love and transformation with irony, ambiguity and optimism.

“Paint-by-numbers is both complex and simple; it is mass-produced conceptual art,” says Speegle. “Someone else has already prescribed the image and colors and someone else paints them in. That [poses] the question: who is the artist?”

Which brings to mind the main reason paint-by-numbers swept the country in the early 1950s: you didn’t have to be an artist to paint a picture. The kits included premixed, numbered paints ready to be applied to numbered spaces on an accompanying canvas or board. Critics at the time considered this phenomenon, along with TV dinners and instant coffee, an example of a mindless conformity and instant gratification gripping the country. Nevertheless, the public loved it.

“My work is based on combining modern popular culture with the craft of paint-by-number, which is a simple method of line, form and color,” says Speegle. “I then transform this vintage craft to say something altogether different than was originally intended.”

Using collage, silkscreen, drawing, painting and other media to explore different applications, Speegle has reworked and transformed paint-by-numbers to create a new version of Pop Art, made popular in the 1950s and 1960s through artists including Andy Warhol, who used images from comic books, advertisements, consumer products and the media.

You can view an example of Speegle’s public art on the side of the firehouse in the Village of Jeffersonville. The image transformed a previously bland wall into a colorful depiction of five seasons in the Catskills, featuring his signature paint-by-numbers style and the words “Cultivate Your Community.”

Speegle had a weekend house in Barryville before moving to a renovated barn in Youngsville. Recently he decided to leave the city and move to the country full-time, opening a gallery and retail store in Jeffersonville. Located at 4849 Rte. 52, the bright yellow and green building, once a gas/service station and recently the home of Echo Letterpress, has been transformed into an art gallery/studio/shop. The first floor features the Re-Pop Shop with color-by-number kits, postcards, clothing, stationary and Speegle’s original artwork. Gallery 52, an exhibit space, is located upstairs:

His latest show, “Trey Speegle Summer Scenes,” opens this Saturday, July 7 with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. The show, which runs until September 2, is a mix of colorful paint-by-number canvases depicting summer landscapes including sailboats, lighthouses and lake settings that have been painted or silkscreened over with word art or abstract designs. The shop and gallery are open Saturday and Sunday from 12 noon to 5 p.m., through Labor Day Weekend.

For more information visit treyspeegle.com/gallary52.