Doc Lunges Into Immortality

August 22, 2011

Worked all weekend on Doc in a rage paintings. Had five different images going on Saturday, tried to finish at least one of them on Sunday but didn't make it. I was stuck, bigtime. Got up this morning at five and went for a brisk walk up Old Stage Road. Cleared out my head, got the blood going, came back and bailed into "The Lunge," which is my take on the opening of the OK gunfight. By the time Doc got down to where the cowboys were standing, he was enraged and I think he lunged at Tom McLaury, threatening him with the shotgun. Although Wyatt is credited with saying, "You sons of bitches have been looking for a fight and now you can have it," I think this sentiment applied doubly to Holliday.

Also finished "Deep In The Lot," based on the Wood-laden-Donkey In Fly's Side Yard photo:

One of the things I wanted to illustrate is the fact that, unlike the movies on the OK Corral fight and most of the representations, there were quite few bystanders who witnessed the fight. First off, a very large crowd gathered at Hafford's Corner where the Earps and Holliday waited, while rumor mongers and gad abouts ran back and forth between the cowboys' location (they moved several times, going through the OK Corral and finally, landing in the side yard of Fly's Boarding House, which is where Doc and Kate were staying). When the Earps and Holliday began their famous walk, all sorts of rubber neckers joined them walking behind at a safe distance, of course. Yes, that's Sheriff Johnny Behan at far right, on the landing between the boarding house and Fly's Photo Gallery. And that's Tom McLaury collapsing at the telegraph pole on the corner.

"History is an argument without end."
—Pieter Geyl