July 30, 2012
Trying to finish all the coverage for Outrageous Arizona this week. Knocked out four this weekend, including this one "The Vigilantes":
Hard to imagine being part of a vigilante group and hanging someone. I'm sure the emotions ran the gamut from glee to remorse.
Also finished Pearl Hart getting a one-way ticket out of Arizona:
And I finally finished the Tucson mob that threw rotten fruit and a dead cat at the returning legislators in 1886:
And I finished a scene of Sheriff Budge Ruffner collaring outlaw Sandy King:
Nice fade there if I don't say so myself. Got about five more scenes to do this week. Been fun. I'm on a roll.
Someone asked me why I named a recent painting "The Mother of All Whores". The essence was why would I ruin a "beautiful painting" with such an ugly title?
Here's how I got there: I wanted to do something cave painting symbolic regarding the Southwest. What one symbol would encapsulate the last 100 years. I've been working on Kissing Jennie and Pearl Hart (allegedly paid to leave the state because she got pregnant in the Yuma Pen!) and so that was on my mind. Then there's Tules in Santa Fe and from there I went to a certain talking head on Cable and especially the History Channel (he's been featured on history docs more than 250 times) and I kid him about being a "media whore," but then I have no room to talk, and believe me, he gives it right back to me. And then I thought about how both New Mexico and Arizona had to compromise and clean up their act in order to get statehood and it all came together as "The Mother of All Whores." And, by the way, the above mentioned media whore hates the title. Ha.
"You must begin to trust yourself sometime."
—Old Vaquero Saying
