Visiting Artists In Residence

 December 16, 2024

   After Tommy and his family landed at Sky Harbor at three yesterday, we went straight to Marisco's Playa Hermosa for a double order of Molcajete!

Molcajete, Baby!

 To my right is Tommy's best friend Bill and his fiance Kat next to him.

Molcajete, In A Bowl of Red

(we also got a bowl of green)

    It took them 33 hours to get to our house last night, but this morning I have two grandkids in my studio. They both asked me if they could work on scratchboards and that, alone, is my Christmas present. It doesn't get any better than that! 

  Here is Fenton, working on a piece he told me is "Storm of the Dead."

    Just wait until you see his masterpiece, said Grandpa Ha Ha. Meanwhile. . .

Harper works on labeling in studio

"Why is everything in your studio Old School, Grandpa?"

—Harper

The Torturous Graveyard Journey of The Historian's Family

December 14, 2024

   To be a proper historian is to torture your family by making them visit a whole bunch of graveyards they have very little interest in. 

Evidently someone is

buried in this graveyard that is tangental

to the Jesse James story*

The guy who would know, Mark Lee Gardner, standing at the grave of John Newman Edwards outside some obscure town in Missouri*

   Occasionally there is the side benefit of a pretty sky, but that's about it for enjoyment.

Storm Over Robert Ford's lonely Grave*

   Still, we persist.

"You will enjoy visiting graveyards

or I'll put you in one!"

—Historian's Tiresome Mantra

    There is a lonely grave just west of Datil, New Mexico and I look for it every time I travel through that country. It's off to the south side of the road and appears to be a family plot with a tall, proud headstone.

Flashback Whip Out: "The Lonely Grave"

(August 26, 2009)

The actual gravestone is more ornate with tall columns, but I wanted to emulate the old fashioned headstones I have seen and sketched at the Quemado cemetery, which is also in the same area. To me it speaks to the temporary nature of people on the desert. First we are dwarfed by it, and then we are swallowed by it (that's why the grave is tilting, on its way to being reclaimed by the earth).

"You will never become a popular painter. You are too much of an individual for that."
—Robert Henri

* Clell Miller is buried in the Muddy Fork Cemetery outside Kearny, Missouri

* John Newman Edwards is buried outside of the town of Dover, Missouri

* Robert Ford is buried in Richmond Cemetery, in Richmond, Missouri

Fallen Angels, Loco Ojos And Rough Riders: The Eyes Have It!

 December 13, 2024

   I enjoy doing eyes, squinting and caring, hardened and soft. They are indeed the windows to the soul.

Daily Whip Out: "As Hard As They Come"

Daily Whip Out: "Fallen Angel Eyes"

Daily Whip Out: "Sweet Bessie From Pike"

Daily Whip Out: "Los Ojos Locos"

(Crazy Eyes!)

Daily Whip Out: "Rough Rider"

"Ay Yi Yi!"

—Old Vaquero Exclamation

Last Fandango At The Heatwave Cafe, Part II

December 12, 2024

   At one time The Heatwave Cafe was the wildest and most dangerous honkytonk in all of the Southwest. Over a five decade period a dozen men were shot dead in the parking lot. Local authorities claim almost twice that many more men were targets of jealous rage, but the deadly dozen were caught with their pants down and the sheriff's office was quick to warn that it's just so much harder to run with your pants down around your ankles.

The original Heatwave Cafe

February, 1973

   Of course, with the advent of Country Swing it grew into a giant dancehall out on the desert between Wickiup and the Blake Ranch turnoff. The prettiest and wildest cowgirls got down with the rowdiest cowboys who ever rode bareback to school.

   One of those wild and crazy cowboys called the Heatwave his favorite bar and dancin' joint.

Granthum P. Hooker

alias The Doper Roper

   Generations of cow people frequented the famous watering hole.

A Famous Cowgirl's Mother 

at The Heatwave Cafe, circa 1927

   And that famous cowgirl is rumored to be attending the last fandango at the Heatwave Cafe.

Honkytonk Sue In The Corral of her mama's homestead

   Like any wild thing in her twenties, Sue sowed some major oats and, if you believe the rumors, she did some bad things and, if even half the rumors are true, she hurt some good people. The word on the Big Sandy is she aims to make amends. Of course, half the women in Mohave County hate her guts so the sparks may fly one last time. That is, if she even shows up.

"It wasn't god who created honkytonk angels."

—Kitty Wells, 1952

Old Rackensack And The Naming of Cave Creek

 December 11, 2024

   What's in a name? Plenty.

Sketchbook Daily Flashback Whip Out:

"Itchy (Trigger Finger) Mickey"

(December 31, 202)

So, exactly, how did Cave Creek get its name?

December 22, 1873

   Stationed at Camp McDowell, northeast of Phoenix, Arizona, a unit of the 5th Cavalry, led by Lt. Walter S. Schuyler, has been on the hunt since December 1, looking for bronco Apaches (Indians who have left the reservation).

Daily Whip Outs:" Apaches"

Under Schuyler’s command are 11 enlisted men, 25 mules carrying supplies and ammunition, numerous civilian packers and 14 Indian scouts led by Chief of Scouts Al Sieber.

Daily Whip Out: "Al Sieber Chief of Scouts"

   The party scouts east of the Verde River and north of the fort, finding nothing. Crossing to the west side of the river, the patrol heads southwest, and some of the Apache scouts climb New River Mesa to get a look at the surrounding area. They find fresh signs of Tonto Apache activity.

New River Mesa and Elephant Butte

   After a cold night on the mesa above Elephant Butte, the scouts track signs down Cave Creek to a cave on the west bank of the stream. The scouts locate 11 wickiups (brush huts) “cleverly concealed” and hugging the cliff wall.

The scouts report their find to Lt. Schuyler, but he is afraid the hostile Tonto Apaches have already spotted the troops. If his force attacks straight on, the Apaches may escape into the rough hillocks northwest of Black Mountain.

Schuyler decides to guide the troop train westward to the Agua Fria River, making it appear the soldiers haven’t seen the renegade enclave.

After a day in camp, the troops openly march eastward along Camp McDowell Road (south of the present-day Carefree Highway). Schuyler is gambling the Apache lookouts, who are surely watching, will assume the soldiers are heading back to the fort. He is correct.

   A few days before Christmas, Schuyler, Sieber and the Apache scouts quietly creep up alongside Cave Creek until they are opposite the Apache camp.

   Once the first rays of morning break across the sky, the ambush party opens fire from its rocky concealment, killing nine Tontos.

   An untold number of Indians flee in panic and escape, as the soldiers burn several tons of food.

   Or, is this the genesis of the town's name?

   An old Confederate deserter hailing from Missouri, Edward G. Cave (nicknamed "Old Rackensack"), prospected and mined in the Cave Creek area in the 1880s and ended up living in the cave that Cave Creek is named for after the turn of the century. The dates aren't clear but he appears to have died in or near the cave around 1912, depending on who you believe. Some have speculated he is the genesis of the town's name, although military maps show the area as Cave Creek in 1866 before "Old Rackensack" even came to the area (1870).

Daily Whip Out:

"E. G. Cave aka Old Rackensack"

"The problem with local history is the people who lived it don't want the truth, they want to be absolved of the truth."

—Old Cave Creek Saying

Whip Outs Galore

  December 10, 2024

   Got on a tear today, finding a whole bunch of unfinished sketches that I thought could be salvaged and I took a swing at a slew of them.

Daily Whip Out: "Drew In The Doorway"

Daily Whip Out:

"They Appeared Like Ghosts"

Daily Whip Out: "Soiled Dove's Remorse"

Daily Whip Out:

"Another One Bites The Dust"

Daily Whip Out: "One Wary Cowgirl"

Daily Whip Out: "Jesse In Black"

Daily Whip Out:

"Old Vaquero Rides In"

Daily Whip Out:

"Dead Vaquero's Revenge!"

   And, just when you thought I was through with Jesse James.

Daily Whip Out: "Jesse Takes Off!"

There's actually four more but I didn't want to appear to be showing off.

"Sometimes you must play a fool to fool the fool who thinks they are fooling you."

—Old Vaquero Saying

The History of The Cascading Collage

 December 9, 2024

   The birth of the cascading collage concept happened two years ago when we were sixty days out from the premiere of "Trailblazers & Hellraisers," Jana Bommersbach and my book at the Phippen Art Museum outside Prescott. I was feverishly trying to finalize the book and an art show at the museum and at that time I was also filling a scrapbook with narrative image combos that intrigued me. Some were quite abstract. You know, like this:

Seeking A Postive Narrative

   And, so, from there I started clipping group shots of old photos and putting them on a page and then adding my own two cents to try and find a way to connect them or find a way thru. . .

Red And Black Love Each Other

   As I started filling more pages I began to notice that even on the pages where I put dissimilar images together it still had a strange narrative power.

Narrative Scrapbook, Tombstone Page

   As disparate and non-sequential as all these images are, to my eye, they still start to tell a story! We start to connect them (the sleeping whore and the mining smokestacks, oh, yes, I see a connection!) and it all begins to cohere. It is a strange kind of miraculousness. Perhaps it's merely ridiculous and a total nonsequiter, but at any rate, that led to here. . .

Daily Whip Outs:

"Cascading collage #1"

(September 2, 2022)

Then I took this whole cascading idea down to Cattletrack Arts Compound and showed it to Mark McDowell and Brent Bond and they made it fly, and how!

Thanks to Tricia Loscher, the final cascading collage has been unanimously accepted into the Desert Caballeros Art Museum's permanent collection in Wickenburg, Arizona.

A Proud Cartoonist

And His Cascading Collage

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."

—Scott Adams

Wise Owls, The Epic Battle for Our Past And The Triple B Studio Presents New Crusty Characters for Our Current Meltdown

 December 8, 2024

   Still finding scattered art for projects in my archives, some abandoned many moons ago.

Daily Whip Out: "Owl Hoot Drive By"

 "The owl is the wisest of all birds because the more it sees, the less it talks."

—Old Vaquero Saying

The Epic Battle for Our Past

   Sometimes when I meet people they ask me as editor of True West magazine: "Don't you run out of things to print?" Their quizical and sincere look speaks volumes. In their mind, once you find out the truth of an historical event—and print it—what else is there to talk about? A ridiculous question given all the furor over our shared and very contentious history.

Daily Whip Out:

"Those Rurales Came Out of A Side Canyon On The Jump"

   Meanwhile. . .

The Bushwhackers

   The Class of '64. Yes, given what they did, it's hard to fathom, but in certain parts of the country the Bushwhackers are still revered as avenging angels.

Daily Whip Out: "Bushwhacker Angel"

(sporting a pistol the size of an aircraft carrier)

   Perhaps these Bushwhackers should be illustrated with a darker brush.

Daily Whip Out: "Bushwhacker Too"

      And then, there's the fairer sex. . .

Daily Whip Out:

"Good Lord Was She Ever Pissed"

Triple B Studios Presents

   They shipped him off to boarding school. That was their first mistake.

Daily Whip Out: "Bisti Badman"

   He was on the run in Sonora and he had one last pass to cross on the other side of Divisadero.

Daily Whip Out: "El Divisadero"

  No one has seen Honkytonk Sue in decades. Will she show up at the Heatwave Cafe on the last night before it closes for good?

Daily Whip Out:

"Last Fandango at The Heatwave Cafe"

   Not sure what all those old cowboys are going to do when they see her now. Someone from the Big Sandy said she's done gone "Woke."

Daily Whip Out: "Mula Magnifico!"

"A stupid mule is still smarter than a good horse or a bad man."

—Old Vaquero Saying