October 31, 2004
This morning I finished my Soiled Doves Wait So Pensively scratchboard. They are caught between the church and the law. They are in some sort of basement, waiting for either business, or the business of the lawmen who are charged with controlling them. A famous painting by Valasquez gave me the figure of the ominous lawman standing on the steps of the only doorway, holding the key to their freedom or their incarceration. His head is halfway above the door way, but we can just make out the glistening of his badge. It's no accident that so many police officers are divorced because of their constant contact with dancers, strippers and prostitutes.

Shifted gears and started a big gouache of Luke Short standing out front of the Oriental, smoking. Had an excellent model in Tombstone last week and the shadows are quite divine.

Also whipped out a Doc Holliday in a drunken stupor, or dark shadows, or a drunken, dark shadows stupor. At any rate, he's definitely drunk, he's definitely in the dark. I like it.

"The only thing that the sex psychologists can't read a sexual significance into is trap-shooting, and they are working on that now."
—Robert Benchley