Working hard this morning to label Mickey Free artwork for Curator Cal to file. Of course as I attacked the pile, adding titles, descriptions, medium and dates, I, of course, kept seeing areas of specific scenes that could use just a tweak or two. I only got through a couple dozen images and this happened nine times! So, I spent an hour repainting "finished" artwork. Ay-yi-yi! What an imbecile I can be. I won't post them all, but here are some familiar redos:
"Mickey Rides In Redux"
"The Race for The Pine cone Redux"
In the Mickey Free story, the young men of San Carlos were tasked every morning with racing up to Mount Turnbull to retrieve a pine cone. Before they left they were commanded to take a mouthful of water. When they got back they had to spit out the water and hand over the pine cone. The task had two objectives: to get the boys to run over major distances, breathing through their mouths and by bringing back a pine cone they insured they had run far enough up the mountain to sustain and prove their physical endurance. The young captivo, Felix (later Mickey Free) was very slow, and in fact the older kids tripped him and mocked him as they sped past him on the trail. But Felix never gave up and even though he often showed up an hour after everyone else had returned, he always spit out the water and dropped a final pine cone on the pile.
"Mickey Rides Through The Burnt Landscape Redux"
"The Apache Kid's Incredible Run From The Border to San Carlos for Beauty Redux"
"Pursued Redux"
"Beyond The Burning Ridge Redux"
In my humble opinion these are strong images (the strongest I can do) for a strong character. Unfortunately, the verdict, so far, is this: never have so many great scenes added up to nothing.
What to do?
"You have to go to a place where you don't live now and it hurts. It's dark and painful, but you have to go there."
—Jimmy Iovine's advice to U2 in Rolling Stone magazine