The Zombie Paintings

The idea of painting zombies came about as a result of an advanced art assignment I had given my high school students. I had managed to have donated to me, hundreds and hundreds of pieces of art out of the old Valley National Bank, BankOne, Chase collection. There were works in all media in frames, with glass, on board, on canvas. All shapes and sizes. There was some valuable stuff in there, but we were prohibited from selling anything for three years. Most of the art was decorative, but I was able to pull out probably 3 dozen paintings on board in a variety of media and subject matter. I had advanced use the old painting as a starting point for a new painting. The results were really interesting and I think it really helped students get the gist of painting. It worked better than any other painting lesson I had ever done. 

The students were having a great time and I had two very large oil paintings in gold frames from 1930. There also was a series of 3 historical paintings of soldiers in traditional dress. I started on one the soldiers and thought it would be interesting to turn him into a zombie. My students were really interested in both the subject matter and in watching me paint. Since they knew more about zombies than I, I constantly had to ask their assistance. They were also a good sounding board for me when I had questions about things like skin tones or bleeding, festering wounds. 

Normally, I have had little luck with painting my own work in class, simply because of the constant and necessary distractions or a high school art class. But zombie painting was really different. Since I was painting acrylic on top of oil, if I got distracted and the paint had dried, I was able to just scrub it off with water. I could work a little bit each hour and I could involve all of my classes, not just advanced. The more I painted, the more I liked the results, the more my students validated the correctness of my zombies. I was hooked.

I started the large painting of the tycoon next. I painted a lot of it in class. I had a good deal of involvement with my students. I took the finished soldier and large tycoon to the Sunnyslope Art Walk and sold both of them in the first hour. When I told my students that I got $100 for the soldier and $300 for the tycoon, they were impressed. So was I. 

I have no illusions about what these are paintings are. For me, they are a real departure from the work I usually do. It is almost like I am applying make-up rather than painting. There are parts that are technically difficult. Often I have to paint something out and I have to match my paint with the original paint. It is a hard task at times, but I like that. I imagine that I am a forger and wonder what they must feel like when he or she is copying a great work of art. It is not as simple as it looks. 

I have completed the wife of the tycoon.  I am working on another of the soldiers. A neighbor left an old, gilded, oval frame that is beat to hell on my front door yesterday. I spent today working on cleaning and refurbishing the frame. I have the perfect image for this old, broken frame. I think this one will be a banker, part of the Bisbee zombie family. 

I am on the lookout for old gold and plaster frames and old portraits. I would love to find an old oil painting of a clown. There is just something about painting the undead…

Sacred Datura

Farm: Jungle Song

I have collected records all of my life. Once, in college I lost my whole collection in a burglary. Over the years I replaced most of them, and then some. In the last ten years or so I really focused on finding obscure psychedelic records from the mid sixties to the mid seventies. I hit a lot of record stores, yard sales, swap meets, second hand stores, record shows. I had hundreds of records squirreled away in my studio.

After I retired, I have spent a good deal of time organizing and cleaning up my studio and all of the stuff I had stashed away in there over the last twenty five years. I am going through my records and after I listen to each, I decide to keep it or sell it. I’ve sold several hundreds so far and have reduced my collection by about a third. If the album doesn’t hit me, I move it on.

With music, and especially with certain songs, I can listen to the same song over and over again until I tire of it. Sort of like old AM radio! I’ve been listening to this song repeatedly in the last few days.

Farm is a mid-west pysch band. Their eponymous first album, from 1970, was a private label pressing. Originals of this extremely rare album sell in the $500-$700 range. I own a reissue. This is the first song on side one. Jungle Song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQr72vf2odI

Cloud Nine

Ocotillo Blossom

This morning I hiked up the back of Shaw Butte from Mountain View Park. I have done this trail numerous times in the last twenty five years. It's one of my favorites. I like it because it's pretty steep, with six separate inclines up to the top. It takes about 90 minutes from my house. The trail passes by the old foundation that had been the restaurant, Cloud Nine. In the early sixties, jeeps ferried customers up the dirt road to the restaurant and bar from the end of 15th Ave. Back then, customers sitting out on the patio would routinely be visited  by rattlesnakes. The diamondbacks would  be quickly dispatched  by the staff who would toss them over the side of the mountain with a stick! No rattlers today, though I have seen a six rattle, three footer with his head smashed in the middle of the trail on a previous hike. Several summers ago I almost got tagged by one, lower down, as I passed an outcropping of rock. He warned me off with his rattle and I gave him a wide berth. I snapped this ocotillo branch on the way down.