Shooting at Ghosts In The Tunnel Saloon & The Drummer

 February 7, 2023

   I have been searching for a couple scenes I had almost forgotten doing. When Craig Schepp came out last week he requested two art pieces he saw on my art website. One of them was a very murky scene I did over five years ago of a gunfight in Florence, Arizona in total darkness. Thanks to my new curator, Amy Dunn (and her "Helper" Uno), they finally found it upstairs in a flat file. Here it is.

"Shooting at Ghosts In The Tunnel Saloon" 

The Back Story of The Tunnel Saloon Fight

   On May 31, 1888, Pete Gabriel and Joe Phy faced off in the Tunnel Saloon, when Phy came through the swinging doors and drew his pistol and made a threat. The first exchange of gunfire snuffed out the lights (some reports state a lone light). And as Pete moved down the bar to confront his adversary, he kept firing through the smoke and darkness.

   The other scene Craig requested is a stark scene of a certain commander on a certain Montana ridgeline, in 1876, who may, or may not, have turned his weapon on himself.

Daily Scratchboard Whip Out:

"Custer Suicide?"

   And here's Amy and her Helper:

Finders Keepers?

   No, you can't chew on them to make sure they are real. I'm talking to Uno who.

   I also found another sketch I had forgotten about.

Daily Whip Out: "The Drummer"

   Yes, it is my son Thomas Charles.

"If you could say it in words there would be no reason to paint it."

—Edward Hopper