Bloody Run, The Croquet Kid & Paris Cabbies

November 30, 2015
   Finished a stagecoach scene this morning before I came into work.

 Daily Whip Out: "Bloody Run." 

   This notorious spot in Graham County, Arizona is where Apaches attacked a Mexican freight team in 1882 and then seven years later a group of local Mormon farmers attacked an army payroll company (known in Arizona history as "The Wham Payroll Robbery"). There are six attackers lurking in the bushes in the painting. See 'em?


   Meanwhile, here's a sneak peek at a feature we're putting together for the next issue of True West:

 

 Dan The Man's layout: the space in Cro-quet is for the center fold contraction.

   Gonna be a big sucker. 12-pages, plus a four-page Classic Gunfight on the killing of Bernstein at Mescalero by an element of the Regulators. Goes to press this Thursday.

 

Daily Whip Out: "Paris Cabbie And Desert Heatwave Highway"

   Got the Paris cabbie from a photograph I saw while in Paris in September. Dig the big cig.

   Watched the 12-part travel doc "Tony Robinson's Wild West In 3-D" last night and discovered that Buffalo Bill was born in Iowa in 1846. Hmmm, and I dropped in 1946, in the same state. Some symmetry there.

"I want to paint men or women with that something of the eternal which the halo used to symbolize, and which we seek to convey by the atual radiance, by the vibration of our coloring."

—Vincent van Gogh

Who Invented "The Doorway Shot"?

November 28, 2015
   When one door closes, another opens. Such is life, especially when it comes to art.

Daily Whip Out: "Van Gogh In The Doorway"

   Thanks to my friend and fellow artist, Allen Fossenkemper, I got to see this wonderful collage of "Doorway Shots" inspired by the Western film master John Ford, who did the original framing in "The Searchers":

The Doorway Shot

  As  you can clearly see, my above image of van Gogh standing in the doorway was inspired (a nice way of saying "poached") from Clint Eastwood standing in the doorway from the movie "The Outlaw Josie Wales." Damn, he looks cool in that shot.

   One of the comments at the end of the clip says something to the effect that John Ford wasn't all that original because when you go out on a set to film, the concept of the doorway shot—shooting through an open doorway—comes naturally to the director. And, this, of course is total B.S. because before Ford did this NOBODY had ever even thought of using it. Why would you set up a shot in the dark, shooting out a doorway, essentially a frame within a frame? That is just stupid, the old time filmmakers reasoned. That is, until an artist, thinking counter-intuitively, comes up with it, which brings us to the old saw about creativity and originality: first they laugh at you, then they get mad and then someone who they think is cool tells them it's cool and from that point on, it's always seemed self-evident. Or, words to that effect. Yes, it seems evident now, but it was genius at the time Ford first utilized it. A frame within a frame. Such a simple concept and nobody had done it before Ford.

   All of this dovetails into the artistic efforts of Vincent van Gogh. His paintings seem crude and amateurish to us, but they are anything but. The whole and its parts are held together by contrasts. When he started doing this, nobody thought this was even painting. In the end, he gave everyday objects deeper meaning. And if you study his paintings and get past the surface you will find he is looking through a doorway at something else. A frame within a frame. Good advice for all of us, but we know where all that leads.

"When a man gets too old to set a bad example, he starts giving good advice."
—Old Vaquero Saying

Sometimes Art Is What You Leave Out

November 27, 2015
   Everyone asks me what I got out of my 20-day pursuit of the actual spots where Vincent van Gogh painted and I have to say, the biggest takeaway is I am amazed at what he DIDN'T choose to paint.

Daily Whip Out: "What He Chose NOT to Paint"

"Sometimes art is what you leave out."

—Old Vaquero  Saying

Breakfast Musings & More Van Gogh Gunfighters

November 25, 2015
   Breakfast musings: three works in progress, mulling numerous possibilities. Which one will I attack first?

 

Three Works In Progress: one scratchboard, sketchbook portrait ideas for

Rene Secretan and an elusive female gouache. The framed scratchboard of a

 Jesse James gang member, at  bottom, is there for inspiration.

    Went into the office to work on the big croquet photo package (10-pages!). Lots of moving parts. Have to nail it down today, since the staff is off tomorrow and Friday and we go to press a week from tomorrow. Had to postpone final layout until Monday. Sent first two pages down to Dan The Man so he can design splash page. Cutting it tight but it's a very ambitious piece.

   Went home for lunch and took another pass at the morning scratchboard:

 

Daily Whip Out: "Vincent van Gunfigher #2" 

   This came about as a result of a scribbled idea from my sketchbook:

 

Daily Whip Out: "Vincent van Gunfighter Cover Type Sketch"

   Robert Ray is choosing distressed-wood-block type to reverse out of scratchboard. Here's what we came up with for a rough cover comp:

 

Cover rough of "Vincent van Gunfighter"

   I love this stuff.

"How difficult it is to be simple."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Credit Where Credit Is Due & Curator Cal Strikes Again

November 23, 2015
   Here's a daily whip out that fell through the cracks:

 

Daily Whip Out: "The Hunter"

   Well, Curator Cal is at it again. Came home for lunch and my art desk area has been totally redefined. Allow me to say, it has never looked this good. That's lunging Doc at center.

 

Curator Cal Strikes Again

   Many readers have asked me which historian said, in reference to Wyatt Earp, "You won't like him. He's not who you think he was." I honored his request at anonymity while he was alive, but it's a great quote and I think he deserves the credit for it. John Gilchriese could be cranky, outspoken and controversial, but he always treated me well.

 

John Gilchriese in his Tucson home, circa 1988 

"Narcissism is the bacterium infecting all bad writing."

—Mary Karr

Classic Airstream & Tragic Auvers Nightmares

November 22, 2015
   More cleaning in the studio. And, of course, I find all these old things that I simply cannot throw away, like this priceless little gem:

 

An Airstream On Lincoln Near Tatum

   This great product photograph was taken by the late Herb McLaughlin back in the 1950s. That is the Praying Monk, upper left, on the northwest end of Camelback Mountain and it appears the car is on Lincoln Drive just west of Tatum Blvd in Paradise Valley, Arizona. Needless to say, it's all houses now.

   I'm still deep into Vincent's last days. I'm rereading "Lust For Life," a gift from the Top Secret Writer. Tragic stuff. It reads like a bad dream.

 

Daily Whip Out: "Rene Secretan #8"

   I really dislike Rene Secretan because he brought meanness to a sick man. He may not have in fact shot and killed Vincent van Gogh but by his own admission, he was abusive and treated the Dutchman terribly. And he bragged about it in old age. He was a bully and a Paris punk. So I gave him Bruce Dern's mouth. Still not cocky enough, but I'll get him, yet.

"The world breeds monsters, but kindness grows just as wild."

—Mary Karr, author of "The Art of Memoir"

 

A New Start In The Studio

November 20, 2015
   Finished the last page of my latest sketchbook this morning. This is the sketchbook I carried to Europe in September on the van Gogh tour. Each sketchbook has 100 pages, and they typically last about two-and-a-half months. The spiral binding got smooshed, probably from an overhead bin on an airplane, but it is full of crazy ear sketches almost all the way through. I usually give it a little extra juice on the last page. Funny how that is. If I worked this hard every day, on every page, maybe I'd be a better artist. As it took shape, starting in bottom-right corner, I decided to draw all the things I dig.

 

Daily Whip Outs: "Everything I love"

   My studio, which has been a pit for a very long time, is being whipped into shape by Curator Cal. It currently looks like a dad-burned BBB museum. Check out the foyer.

 

 The New and Reclaimed BBB Foyer

   This latest sketchbook joins a long and growing gaggle of sketchbooks stretching back a couple decades now. Funny what you can accomplish if you just commit to doing it.

 

The BBB Sketchbook Morgue

   Cal has also commandeered my computer area and replaced the mess I had there with black and white images, including photos of several big influences in my life: Charlie Waters and Paul Revere, Al and Bobbie (my parents) and Bob and Louise Guess (my grandparents). That's Doc Holliday, upper right.

 

BBB studio computer area

   Of course, it's hard to keep the entire area looking so pristine because when I work it's chaotic and I have numerous projects going at the same time and my work area tends to look like this:

 

One of three art desks, my main one. Yes, that is today's sketches, bottom left, which I added some washes to from the pallette at right.

   Of course, I'd like to say I am turning over a new leaf and that I will stay on top of the mess and my studio will stay so classy, but well. you know.

"If you can see the light at the end of the tunnel you are looking the wrong way."
—Old Vaquero Saying

An Earful

November 19, 2015
   Happy Birthday to Dan The Man Harshberger. He's 68 today.

   Speaking of birthdays, so I'm waking up and Kathy says, "You also have a birthday coming up. What do you want to do?"
   And I said, "I don't know, let me think about it." She says, "69?" And I said, "That's a little more strenuous than I had in mind." And she says, "No, I meant your age." And I said, "Yes, I'll be 69."

   Took another crack at paying full attention to half an ear.

 Daily Whip Out: "An Earful."

"Never to suffer would never to have been blessed."
—Edgar Allan Poe 

Changing Woman & Changing Daughter

November 18, 2015
   Here's a theme I have returned to from time to time. Many In-dins in my neighborhood believe in a female deity who changes night into day.

Daily Whip Out: "Changing Woman #6"

From Changing Woman to Changing Daughter
   She's my number one cowgirl model. Here is Deena C. back in 1995 looking sharp, looking for her pony.

 

Deena C. Red Lined And Ready to Rope

"Few people can see genius in someone who has offended them."

—Robertson Davies

We Ride at The Crack of Dawn And That's When I Do My Daily Whip Outs

November 17, 2015
   It's been cold out here on the great Sonoran Desert. Had my first fire in the studio stove this morning and finished a painting that has been in my discard pile for over a year.

 Daily Whip Out: "We Ride At Dawn."

   And speaking of my discard file, I was filing pictures and found this one and couldn't resist giving it another go:

 

Daily Whip Out: "Buffalo Bill Wannabe Rene Secretan"

   This is, of course, my extrapolation from the van Gogh sketch who some believe Vincent made of the boy who later shot him.

 

Vincent van Gogh sketch

"I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell."

—Harry S. Truman

 

Buffalo Bill Wannabe

November 16, 2015
   Having just seen Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show in Paris in 1889, the young punk Renee Secretan outfitted himself with a buckskin coat, a big hat and a pistol that "worked when it wanted to."

 Daily Whip Out: "Buffalo Bill Wannabe Slaps Leather"

   Another view of the victim that day on the road to oblivion.

 

Daily Whip Out: "Vincent van Black Sheep" 

"A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow".

—George Patton Jr.

  

Making A Spectacle of Specs

November 15, 2015
 There is nothing more dangerous than having half the facts. I'm referring, of course, to the war on ISIS and also to the specs on spectacles as it relates to Theo van Gogh. When I first read the quote about Theo wearing "sunglasses," in the outstanding biography of Vincent van Gogh by Steven Naifeh and the late Gregory White Smith, I knew I had to illustrate it. There was a problem, however. In my experience there are three stages of scholarship:

1. Knowing nothing

2. Knowing just enough to get in trouble

3. Knowing too much

   In this case I knew a little bit about the history of sunglasses (#2) and so I stumbled semi-blindly into a cliched vision of 1880s sunglasses that landed somewhere between Ben Franklin and Roger McGuinn of the Byrds.

Roger McGuinn of The Byrds

Fortunately I posted the image here and got a link from Gay Mathis to the entire letter and discovered that there is no mention of the word "sunglasses" on the quote on the van Gogh letters site. Then I ran into Tom Valenza of Historic Eyewear who told me two startling things: a "pince nez" has no temple bars that run to the ears and, two, that the term "sunglasses" was not used until after the 1900s.

Lost In Translation
   So, I took the quote from the book on face value: "I cannot help seeing you in my mind's eye wearing a pince-nez with sunglasses." That is the quote from the book. However, here is the quote as it appears on the site Gay Mathis found: ""Since this summer I can’t help always visualizing you with your lorgnette with dark lenses. This doesn’t change a person very much, you’ll say. Maybe so — but my impression is that you have perhaps, in a sense other than the literal one, acquired dark glasses in what you think and do. Suspicion, for instance."

   Nowhere is the term "sunglasses." Apparently, the authors of the van Gogh biography trusted a translation that used the term "sunglasses" and apparently the translator didn't know the history of the term. It just shows the layers of history that can trip up the casual history buff (and that would include me). So, after five false starts, I did this version of Theo and his Pince-Nez spectacles this morning:

Daily Whip Out: "Theo van Gogh in Pince-Nez spectacles"

   And here is a photo of an actual pair of "pinched nose" spectacles like the ones Vincent was referring to in his letter. Except these are clear and evidently Theo had dark lenses. I chose green because, well, Theo died from complications from syphilis, and green is associated with the disease.

 A pair of Pince-nex spectacles courtesy of

Tom Valenza of Historic Eyewear.

   Oh, and here's an example of number 3: when I did the Wyatt Earp standing off the mob in Tombstone myth (October issue of True West), I quoted a Tombstone newspaper that said Ben Sippy and his men did the lion's share of the work to protect prisoner Johnny-Behind-the-Deuce. Wyatt Earp is not even mentioned in the report. I sited this to make the point that Wyatt did not stand off the mob all by his lonesome, as he claimed late in life to his biographers. After the article came out, both Allen Barra and Casey Teffertiller sent me evidence of politics in the news reporting (the newspaper had supported Sippy and wanted to make him look good) and that the Tucson newspapers gave more credit to the Earps and especially Wyatt. I personally don't think it changes the story all that much: Wyatt took credit for something that several lawmen accomplished, but it does speak to the layers of history that confound finding the truth and it's my experience that the deeper you go, the more confusing it gets. It never gets clearer.

"History would be a wonderful thing—if it were only true."

—Leo Tolstoy

France In The Crosshairs And In The Rearview

November 14, 2015
   We have only been home from France six weeks, but we can feel the pain and horror of yesterday's terrorist attacks acutely because we walked those streets and saw those places and enjoyed all the people we met on our tour to find the world of Vincent van Gogh.

BBB sketching in Arles in the south of France.

   We saw glimpses of the tension that has been ramping up since the Charlie Hedbo massacre last January. Especially on the trains: on our route from Nuenen in Holland to Antwerp and Brussels, and then on to Paris, we experienced delays after a guy locked himself in the bathroom of a train in Rotterdam and a SWAT team came in to take him down. All the lines were affected. It's not PC, but I admit to being uncomfortable around certain foreigners, and when you're on THE train that the three American kids took down the terrorist on, and Middle Eastern people come down the aisle with sun glasses on, well, my mind went straight to, "What will I do if this dude pulls out an AK-47?" Just east of our apartment in Paris, there are numerous Middle-eastern stores and the streets are crowded with knots of Arab looking men, smoking and conversing on the corners and in the cafes. And this is the area where most of the attacks took place yesterday. I definitely felt an unease when we walked in these neighborhoods and I have a hunch we walked by at least one of the victims or the perpetrators.

   About ten years ago, my son Thomas turned me on to Eagles of Death Metal and I have always liked their funky, garage band style. I have about five of their tunes on my iPhone. That it was during one of their shows on Friday evening that the terrorists attacked their venue as a "soft target" brings it home as well.

Members of my tribe: the cartoonists who died during the Charlie Hedbo massacre. This mural is in Arles in the south of France.

   When we were in Paris in September, all the major sites, like the Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, patrolling military squads of three and four men, with machine guns and full-on military gear walked through the crowds. I admit to being unnerved when a DSL delivery van (shades of Oklahoma City and Timothy McVeigh) sped right up to the barricades in front of the Notre Dame cathedral and a suspicious looking guy jumped out and ran into the church. It turned out to be an actual delivery, but I have to admit to being on edge for a brief moment. These were small incidents to an otherwise wonderful trip, but nonetheless, the tension was there and I can only imagine what that tension will be like now.

"You think if this happened you would run or defend yourself against the men, but these things just happen and then suddenly you can't move."
—Pierre Bertin, 36, who survived the Batacllan concert massacre on Friday night

Stage Door Johnnies and Cut Eared Madmen

November 12, 2015
   Found a great photo this morning of Annie Oakley talking to two groupies:

 

Annie Oakley With Stage-Door-Johnnies, circa 1889

Photo by Count Primoli, an amateur photographer 

   Annie was a bonified rock star who had to fend off wanted and unwanted attention. This photo will be part of the package on our big Buffalo Bill performing in Paris feature in March. Whistler caught the show as did Paul Gauguin and thousands of others on the European continent. Cody definitely influenced one Renee Secretan, who, several months later, may have accidentally shot a certain one-eared Dutch, redheaded madman.

Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat Department:
   Took another crack at that damn cut-in-half ear this morning. Also, the Pince Nez spectacles on Theo. I'll get 'em both yet.

 

Daily Whip Outs: "Two Brothers, Pince Nez Spectacles And One Missing Ear"

"Dark glasses were not referred to as 'sunglasses' until after 1900. And for some reason green lenses became associated with syphilis and we don't know why."

—Tom of Historical EyeWear Company 

Downward Facing Dude

November 11, 2015
   I was a little too harsh yesterday. I don't hate yoga, or the people who go to yoga. I get massive benefits from going twice a week to yoga. Thanks to yoga, my neck actually moves. No, what I actually hate is downward facing dog. And I hate the young, peppy Yoga-Drill-Instructors who run us through our "poses" and these pretty-pliant-posers are wayyyyy too fond of the move that's too difficult-for-an-old geezer-guy to do. If you don't know what a downward facing dog is, basically it's an extended push-up, with your butt higher in the air with your arms pushing your butt back towards your ankles. For some reason, women do it with ease. Me, I hate it. Hate the person who invented it, hate anyone who makes me do it.

   With this in mind, I had to laugh at an article in the Wall Street Journal about how more and more Boomers are taking their dogs to yoga (Boomers are taking their damn dogs on airplanes, in restaurants and even churches. What's next confession? Or swinger clubs? Oh, that's right, some already do that). Anyway, the article asks "Do dogs Do Downward Facing Human?" I don't think that's exactly right: shouldn't it be "Do Dogs Do Downward Facing Dude?" Seems more accurate and funny that way.

   My studio is a pit and that's putting it mildly. However, I now have some high-powered help. Here is Curator Cal on the staircase to my loft adding a bit of class by hanging some of the many paintings, drawings and artifacts I have collected over the past 45 years. I bought those shotgun chaps in Orogrande, New Mexico back in 1991, when I was first hot on the trail of the Kid.

 

Curator Cal contemplates her next hang

   This photo was taken at lunch yesterday and when I got home both walls were full of the coolest stuff, gunbelts and machetes, spurs and car parts and lots and lots of BBB Daily Whip Outs. She is amazing.

   Here's a couple more photographs from the big storm that rolled in yesterday:

 

 Saguaros Holding Up The Sky

   A massive storm moved through Cave Creek yesterday morning, but incredibly we didn't get a drop of rain out of it.

 

Massive Storm Over Ratcliff Ridge, November 10, 2015

   Made for some beautiful skies though. And, thanks to going to yoga I caught these scenes. I guess those old vaqueros were right:

"For everything you lose, you will gain something. For everything you gain, you will lose something."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Leaving Well Enough Alone

November 10, 2015
   Sometimes I can't leave well enough alone. Took home "Hogtown Hussies Study #7" and took another couple scratches at it. Thought that blank space at left looked a little blank. Couldn't resist.

"Hogtown Hussies Studies #7 and #8."
Too far? I never know.

 

On my way to yoga this morning at 7 a.m.

   I hate yoga and everyone who goes there, but it's the only thing that unlocks my neck and back. Meanwhile, a big storm rolled in and I got this on the way back:

 

"Saguaro In The Storm" 

      So I guess I have yoga to thank for both pictures.

"The world is but canvas to our imaginations."

—Henry David Thoreau

Specs On Authentic Specs

November 9, 2015
   It's always a hoot-and-a-half to find deep spec authenticity. For example, I am intrigued by a line in one of the 800 letters Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo. The year is 1885 and Vincent is being covertly hostile to his little brother. He gives him a dig about what he was wearing in a recent visit to the parent's home in Neunan. Theo was by that time a bigtime art seller for Groupal, the company co-owned by their uncle, also named Vincent van Gogh, but called Cent. It doesn't help that Vincent was a total failure at selling art in his short-lived Groupal employ, attacking customers for their bad taste in art and taunting them to buy something better. Vincent's little brother, Theo, was everything that Vincent was not: smooth, polite and a good salesman.

   Here is the line that intrigued me: "I cannot help seeing you in my mind's eye wearing a pince-nez with sunglasses." I'm not familiar with the French language, so I thought that a pince-nez was perhaps a style of suit, but the part that is incredible is that Theo had on sunglasses! I wondered what they looked like, and, of course, gravitated to the Benjamin Franklin style round ones:

 

 Daily Whip Out: "Theo In Ben-Franklin-Style-Sunglases" 

   Fast forward to the Cave Creek Wild West Days Parade least Saturday. Tom and Doree, of Historic EyeWear Company (their motto is: "Keeping History in Sight") were in town and decided to join us for the parade. As we stood waiting for the parade to begin I got to questioning Tom about sunglasses in 1885. Tom informed me the Ben Franklin round glass frames went out of style in the early 1800s and oval lenses became popular. By 1885, the "oval temple spectacles" nose bridge became passe and the Pince-nez (French for "pinched nose") style became trendy. I asked Tom what color might the lenses be and he said, "Blue was very popular." So, now we get a better idea of what Theo may have looked liked:

 

Daily Whip Out: "Theo's Blue Pince-Nez Sunglasses"

I envision Theo at the train station, arriving in Neunan, with the hipster glasses on:

 Daily Whip Out: "Theo On The Nuenan Train Platform"

     Vincent hated affectation of any kind. One time a visiting artist offered to look as his artwork and when he reached out to turn a page, Vincent noticed his cuff link and launched off on how much he hated anyone who would wear such ostentatious crap! 

   So it pays to find the people who have spent their lives studying a particular aspect of historical ostentatious crap, and here they are:

 

Tom and Doree of Historic EyeWear Company 

   

 That's Gary, "The Horseback Singing Cowboy" behind them getting ready for the parade.

   And here's a link to their website:

Historic EyeWear Company

Okay, this just in from Gay Mathis: "From reading the actual Jan 31, 1885 letter it lists in translation for zwartglas as "black glass" and I agree with Gold Lady probably no side pieces. Lorgnette as he wrote "lorgnet" in the letter." And here's the actual excerpt from the letter:

"Since this summer I can’t help always visualizing you with your lorgnette with dark lenses.

This doesn’t change a person very much, you’ll say.

Maybe so — but my impression is that you have perhaps, in a sense other than the literal one, acquired dark glasses in what you think and do. Suspicion, for instance."

And if you want to read the entire letter here it is:

Van Gogh letter in question

"My future's so bright I have to wear shades."

—Pop song from the nineties

Concho and Pancho at The Cave Creek Wild West Days Parade

November 8, 2015
   We had our annual Wild West Days Parade yesterday in Cave Creek. The usual suspects rode and walked with us next to the True West Stretch Limo.

Buck Montgomery and his Wild Bunch, including Pancho Villa, at left.

   A great group of guys who show up and do their thing, hand out True West magazines and pose with the ladies. Fun was had by all. Have to thank Matt Grace who always lends us the ride:

The Checker Stretch Cab with the

True West logo over the doors.

   After the parade we always drive back to the staging area and Lee lopes along behind the car and every parade I take a hundred shots and video, because, well, he looks so damn cool.

Lee Anderson on Concho

   Lee always cuts a fine figure. Expect to see this silhouette in an upcoming Whip Out. Love those taps (tapaderos, leather stirrup guards). After the parade I drove down into the Beast to attend the art opening of Edmundo Segundo..

Three Amigos: Jerry Foster, Ed Mell and BBB

   Ed had an art opening at his new gallery on 10th Street, just up the street from his studio. Great seeing all the old timers. Jerry Foster was a legendary helicopter pilot who flew for several news stations back in the eighties and nineties. Crazy guy he was. Still is.

   If you thought perhaps I was past my van Gogh obsession, you will be sorely disappointed in tomorrow's post. Been deep in Vincent territory all weekend, with big scratchboards scraping bottom in a big way.

Daily Whip Out: "The Weird Redheaded Preacher's Son"

   Weather is beautiful. Got a crystal clear view of my favorite ridge

Close-up of the south end of Ratcliff Ridge, November 7, 2015

"A developer is someone who wants to build a house in the woods. An environmentalist is someone who already has a house in the woods."

—Dennis Miller