Speech last night went well. Sold out crowd, great food, good response. Cartwright's does such a good job. Only glitch was a faulty microphone cord that I had to crimp with my fingers so it would keep the connection. Irritating, and compromised my movement, but when you perform, as Emily Litella (Gilda Radner) put it, "it's always something."
Whipped out a little painting today for a friend:
Daily Whipout, "KC Heads Home Ahead of The Storm"
This is for KC Cassell, former headmaster at the Orme Ranch School who headed back to the east coast last year and is now at a school in Media, Pennsylvania. I promised him a painting and finally got around to it.
Meanwhile, still cleaning in the garage and finding old artwork, like this little slice of Cave Creek life:
"Home of The Real News: Paul's Barbershop In Cave Creek, Arizona," 1987, pen and ink, from a photograph.
Also found the black and white artwork for Honkytonk Sue's first cover:
Honkytonk Sue for first cover on the "New Times Weekly"
Honkytonk Sue's First Cover, March 8, 1978
A couple observations: how shockingly weak that masthead type face looks today! We were so proud of it at the time. I want to say Frank Mell designed it. Ouch! I also believe this is the very first annual Best of Phoenix, which means that they've been doing this very successful sales tool for 36 years! Also, if memory serves me correctly, the teaser at the bottom—"Best Western Magazine"—was actually True West (I just kept the cover and back cover). Perhaps I'm being too hopeful here, but it would have been something I would have promoted in staff meetings, because even way back then I was a fan of True West magazine.
It's kind of staggering to see all of the effort that has gone into literally thousands of drawings I have done over the years. And what's even more staggering is how the vast majority of them really suck (Sue's lower torso, above, is so wrong). I have to agree with Josef:
"I think to get one good picture is a miracle."
—Josef Koudelka, Czech photographer
