November 30, 2003
Didn’t get any art done yesterday but did get to see some great art down at the Biltmore. Kathy and I took off from here about 2:30. Beautiful day out. The Frank Llloyd Wright designed Biltmore Hotel sits regally in the north corridor of Phoenix. Glenn Campbell lives in the adjacent Biltmore Estates and was arrested there last week for being drunk and the hit and run. He told the arresting officers he has never “been drunk, just over-served.” Ha.. The Hotel is celebrating its 75th anniversary and Steve Sampson invited Mark Sublette, a Tucson gallery owner and expert on Maynard Dixon to come up and show off some of his Dixon images and comment on the two murals in the Gold Room which bears Maynard’s art (the second one was painted by his third wife Edith Hamlin after his death using his studies). Of course Ed Mell was there and we marvelled at several little gems, especially a powerful painting of a tall saguaro on the side of Catalina Mountain. I mentally stole several compositions and color schemes to apply to the unfinished Old Man Clanton images lying around my studio.

After the talk, Steve and his wife Annie invited Kathy and I, Maynard Dixon’s son John, Ed Mell, Mark Sublette and several of Mark’s Old Pueblo friends, to join them on the patio for drinks. We sat on big comfy chairs as one of two weddings got underway on the lush center square, which is literally in the shadow of Piestewa Peak (named for the Native American woman who was driving the humvee that Jessica Lynch was in. It was formerly Squaw Peak.) I had a nice merlot and Kathy had a Corona. I sat next to Mark Sublette and we talked about Maynard and Tucson. In addition to Mark’s home in Tucson he has another one in Santa Fe. He is a passionate collector and has a painting done of George and Libbie Custer which he believes was painted at the time of their marriage. I told him he has to contact Bob McCubbin and Paul Hutton, and in addition to their expert opinions, I assured him he will enjoy their passion for all things collectable.

At about six, we drove up to Paradise Valley and met Wonderful Russ for dinner at Chompies ($52 cash). I had the salmon and homemade lima bean soup. Kathy had a turkey sando. Talked quite a bit about the new MP3s and downloading music and how it all works (Russ is a techno buff and has studied all of the variations, etc.).

Got home at nine, rented Hollywood Homicide on the dish ($3.99). Harrison Ford, directed by Ron Shelton (Bull Durham, White Men Can’t Jump). Just an awful mess. I half-kept watching it to see if it would get any better, and it never did.

”You never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough.”
—William Blake