Rooster Death

November 26, 2012

   First day back in office after Thanksgiving. Got an issue going to the printer on Thursday. Need to finish a Classic Gunfights and my editorial on Unsung Heroes: Little Known Characters of the Old West.



   I've got rooster problems in my chicken coop. Remember when I thought I didn't have any roosters? I was told by Betsy I bought seven hens. So, I went and bought a little rooster called Peckasso to give the hens something to live for, but when I put him in the hen house they all tried to kill him. I even tried the wait-until-midnite-and-put-the-chicken-in-amongst-the-sleeping-hens deal and in the morning they will accept the guy? Did that twice and each time when I came out to check in the morning, there Peckasso was running around trying to avoid getting speared to death. So I kept Peckasso in my studio for a month until the cleaning lady, Olga, threatened to wring my neck, after cleaning up all the chicken droppings. So then I gave Peckasso to my neighbor Tom and as the days have gone by it appears I have, ahem, a YMCA deal going on here. Instead of all hens it appears I have mostly roosters. Came home for lunch today and had an apple for dessert, and started laying in brush strokes of the saguaros in a study I've been working on (below). Came to a logical place and stopped, then took the apple core out to give to the chickens and saw this:



 
Rooster Death, 1:12 p.m. Chicken Condo Central, Cave Creek, Arizona



The big red rooster kept jumping on the white rooster, who was still breathing, but fading fast. Big Red jumped up on top of Whitie and pecked at the face and eyes and pulled with his beak at the face until the breathing stopped. Oh, and this is the NATURAL WORLD.





   Threw the dead rooster over the fence and went back inside to finish an ambitious study: "August Clouds Over Ratcliff Ridge".




This is a scene I look at out our kitchen window. Really a spectacular stand of saguaros on the ridge across the road.



When we were in LA last week, we ate at Tacos Delta on Friday morning, a place Carson Mell turned us on to.





As we were leaving I saw this billboard in the parking lot:





I couldn't get anyone to go see "Lincoln" because it clocks in at three hours. Dang. I need a good review. You got one?



"Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"

—Old Vaquero Joke

I Wanna Talk About Heat!

November 25, 2012

   Nice, quiet day at home yesterday. Built a fire in my studio stove.





Read the paper, fed the chickens, started a couple paintings (all clouds). Went down the hill to Tom Augherton's house to deliver the paper (we share). Tom was outside stacking wood:





Tom fed my chickens while we were in LA for Thanksgiving. He bought a cord of wood from a local guy who has been delivering wood to the neighborhood for at least three decades. In the beginning I think he would deliver and stack a cord for $120. Today it's $340 and he doesn't stack it. There's a metaphor for the times we live in, eh?



   Speaking of the times we live in, I noticed two things on our trip to LA: in the security check-in line only two people in the entire line of hundreds of holiday travelers were wearing traditional clothing. By traditonal I mean business attire, jacket, slacks and dress shirt. Me and another old guy were the only ones. We were wearing jackets and dress shirts. Everyone else was grubby to the point of slobby. Everyone is Balkanized in black tattered off-shoot stuff.



   The other trend that is beyond the tipping point: 85% of the people you see in the airport are looking at hand-held devices. Kids on the floor holding them and frantically thumbing them. People walking and texting, in line everyone checks their phones incessantly. it's somewhere beyond epidemic. Even homeless people are doing it! We're all connected to the cloud. it's got a kind of Invasion of the Body Snatchers vibe, only scarier.



   In my studio yesterday I hit on a couple very cool cloud patterns, somewhat by accident. Working wet into wet and on a whim, I loaded up my brush with purple and laid it into a bank of gray. Left to watch a movie on cable with Kathy, "Tower Heist" and when I came back the purple had dried into a nice blend, which created a subtle reflection off the earth into the underbelly of the cloud. This is one of those Happy Accidents where I'm not entirely sure how I got it, but it's quite impressive.



Studied this cloud painting this morning while I ate huevos rancheros and read the Sunday New York Times:





By the way, really enjoyed "Tower Heist" which we blundered onto by accident, while setting up the TV for the DVD player. I remember the movie did so-so and everyone kind of ripped Eddie Murphy for it (a quick Google search resulted in an overview from Wikepedia that it was an Eddie Murphy project, got changed, he came back, did so so at the box office), but we laughed and laughed and thought it was quite good.



Reminds me of Jim Gaffagin's funny bit where he says adamantly, "I wanna talk about Heat!" But Jim, that movie is five years old. "Just saw it. Wanna talk about Heat!"



"You brought a stolen car to a robbery?"

—One of the incredulous anglo robbers to Eddie Murphy in Tower Heist

Thanksgiving With The Kids

November 23, 2012

   We enjoyed a very nice Thanksgiving dinner at the newlywed's apartment in Silver Lake, California yesterday. Here's the cook yesterday morning, checking on the turkey:




And here's the assembled cousins and in-laws sitting down to feed:




And here's the lonely cleanup person afterwards:





Deena C. Bell Bortscheller (the DCBB mentioned in the header yesterday) actually had plenty of help, but i just like the name of the photo which is a  lame takeoff on the Lonely Bull, one of my fave teenage songs.



"Got to get you into my life."

—Another fave song from 1966

Silver Linings Play Date

November 22, 2012

Our kids have always come to us for the holidays. This year marks the first time we are going to them. Kathy and I flew into Burbank on Wednesday night where our daughter Deena picked us up. After Thai food in Silver Lake, we slept on the floor of Deena's apartment.



We got up early and joined Deena on her professional rounds. First stop, Pasadena, where Deena had an appointment at a very large bank headquarters.



 
Pasadena Deena, 8:27 a.m. November 21, 2012



I asked if we could join her in the meeting ("Good morning. These are my parents from Arizona and they are shadowing me all day today. If you have any questions about the Old West my father has an opinion. . .") For some unnamed reason Deena wanted us to stay in the lobby.



I was too restless for that, so I took off walking up Green Street which was quite green with tree-shaded streets. Ran across a movie being filmed and the key grip made me cross to the other side of the street. But before I complied I got the name of the movie "Bad Words" an indie that appears to be about a spelling bee. There was a faux news conference at the foot of the stairs of an old twenties style courthouse building and the reporters are jostling and yelling and two of the actors walk back up the steps and into the building, first one, then the other. Big banners are draped down the front of the building and the middle one has the word spelling bee on it. Bad words: spelling bee. Get it?



Thanks to GPS Deena found me wandering the streets and we headed to her second appointment about a mile away. By the way, the bleachers are already going up for the Pasadena Rose Bowl Parade.



This time Kathy and I both wandered the streets looking for book stores. Everyone appeared to be closed for the holidays, so we ended up at Starbucks, where I borrowed a New York Times, sat outside with my coffee and read while a homeless man yelled at his surroundings the entire time.



From Pasadena, we motored up the 2 to Montrose, a lovely mountainside community where Deena's new husband, Mike, works at a motorcycle dealership. Here he is in their new showroom where they are going to feature Triumphs.



 
Mike And His Bikes, 12:30 p.m. in Montrose, California



The middle bike is a TT Scrambler made to the specs of the Steve McQueen bike he rode in "The Great Escape." I, of course, owned several Triumphs in my amateur racing days so I was amazed at how much bikes haven't changed and at the same time how much they have (better suspensions, fuel injection, etc.). Mike couldn't join us for lunch so the girls and I headed to the quaint, and also tree-lined main street of Montrose where we landed at The Black Cow.





i


t was during this lunch that Kathy and I both came to the realization that Deena has my mother's nose. I thought it was just me, but Kathy later told me she had the same realization. Food was great. I had the salmon, Kathy got the grilled chicken salad and Deena had the grilled chicken and avacado sando (I paid, $56, whipped-out-painting money).



After lunch we went to two grocery stores to get Thanksgiving supplies. First stop Trader Joe's, which was slammed, and then Von's. We got back to Deena's apartment, mid-afternoon, which is high on a hill in Silver Lake.





Home for The Holidays, 2:14 p.m., November 21, 2012



After a nap on the floor, Deena, Kathy and I took off on a foot tour of Silver Lake. Loved this bus stop advertisement:



 
Silver Lake Tequila Wisdom, 5:22 p.m. November 21, 2012



After street tacos and margaritas at Chola Restaurant on Sunset Blvd. we walked to The Vista an old school movie theatre with handprints on the sidewalk a la the Chinese deal in Hollywood. the only name i recognized was Martin Landau, but I loved the ticket booth, the old popcorn popper and, of course, the wonderful decor inside.



 
Silver Linings Play Date, 6:05 p.m., November 21, 2012



I know I've said this before but these photos were taken with MY PHONE! It is the best camera I've ever had and that includes many Nikons and Canons and other brand names I have forgotten already.

Yes, the movie was very odd in a good way. We all enjoyed it. Walked home about three miles and then checked into the Comfort Inn at 11 our time. Long day, but much fun.



"Home is where the heart is."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Buffalo Soldiers (The Tenth Horse) Dust It Up

November 20, 2013

   Sometimes I shoot photographs that I forget about, then discover again, get all excited and print them out for future usage. This is one of those photos, shot last summer in Santa Fe at the Centennial Art Show at Due West Art Gallery. I was looking for something else and ran across this (ON MY PHONE!) This is Rusty York.



 
The Man With The Angst



Been noodling dust effects since last weekend. Had about a dozen "starters" on the floor, dabbing and blotting, puddling and splotching. This morning I grabbed one (the biggest failure) and went for broke on a study I call "The Tenth Horse: Dust Storm Guidon."





Daily Whipout #41, "The Tenth Horse: Dust Storm Guidon"



I want it!



"As painters we must always remember that the spirit is more important than the fact."

—Harold Von Schmidt

Air Cooled Rooms With A View

November 19, 2012

   It is Dan The Man's birthday today. He came out for Design Review and we had a great session, going over design issues for the February issue, cover performance (newsstand is up 10%) and plans for a 60th anniversary surprise.



   Went home for lunch and whipped out a little study I call "Haze Rider".





Had a couple requests for prints of this.



Spent part of the weekend perusing John Hinkley's new Route 66 Encyclopedia"





I don't know what it is exactly, but I get a thrill looking at a certain type of 1950s motels and cafes. Especially the kind that are carved out of the desert, a kind of little oasis in the middle of nowhere (Amboy, Truxton, Seligman, etc) and just the words "air-cooled" and "auto-court" makes me smile. I guess it reminds me of being a little, bitty kid, on the road with my mom and dad. I think there is a really good story in there. Gee, I wonder what ol' professor Currier has to say about this?



"Find a good story, tell it well, and the rest will take care of itself."

— Professor Frank Currier

It's Time to Honor The Women of Arizona With A Monument

November 18, 2012

   Got up to Bronzesmith in Prescott Valley yesterday at 10:05 and the place was already packed with people who drove in from all corners of the state to see Not-So-Gentle Tamer. Out of the crowd I spotted my cousin Froggy Hauan and his wife Trudy, who flew in from Rochester, Minnesota just to see for themselves the ten-foot-tall clay sculpture co-dedicated to my grandmothers, Minnie Hauan Bell and Louise Guess Swafford. Froggy (his given name is Norm) is related to my grandmother Bell and still farms in Thompson, Iowa.





Here we are posed in front of Deb Gessner's masterpiece. And here is the sculptor Deb with me:





The Open House was supposed to be from 10 until 2, but the crowds were so strong I stayed until three. Everyone seems awed by the sheer size of the tough-old-gal but it is the eyes that are the window to her soul. Her eyes say loud-and-clear, "Do not mess with my family." That remarkable achievement is totally Deb Gessner. They had my painting next to the statue (which inspired the project) and someone commented that my painting is estrogen and the sculpture is testosterone. Ouch! Funny, but true.



Several patrons commented that of all the state's centennial projects this year, Not-So-Gentle Tamer is the only one that will honor women. Here's the deal: we need to raise $85,000 to make the bronze monument happen. We have raised half of that. You can help in several ways. You can buy one of the smaller versions of the sculpture (half the money goes to casting the bronze), or you can buy raffle tickets to win one of the small bronzes and you can donate money to the cause at notsogentletamer.com



The plan is to dedicate the full-sized bronze in front of the Prescott Valley Courhouse on Statehood Day, February 14, 2013. It takes two months to cast the bronze so it's going to be a challenge to raise the money in time but with your help we can do it. I hope you'll consider supporting this worthy cause, especially if you agree with Lora Lee, the tireless champion of this project.



"It's time to honor the women of Arizona with a monument."

—Lora Lee Nye

The Biebers Invade And Peckasso Rules The Roost

November 17, 2012

   The Biebers showed up this morning at 7:30. Heard the head Bieber chewing through the gate and went around the studio to the back yard just in time to see one of the smaller Biebers staring at the chickens. He finally saw me, scampered to a hole in the fence (which they made with their tusks) and loped across the side yard on the outside of the fence. Caught him in full stride looking rather Sasquatchy:





Going up the hill this morning for the Open House at Bronzesmith in Prescott Valley. If you are in the area stop by for refreshments and to take a gander at the big 10-foot-tall clay version of "Not-So-Gentle Tamer." i'll be there from 10 to 2.



Hey, remember this little chick roosting on my arm?





Well, Peckasso, is quite a rooster today with hens of his own. I'll get you a photo of what a bigshot he has become with his own condo on the creek and everything. Amazing how far one can go in this world with just a little pluck and cluck.



"Would a rooster by any other name taste so sweet?"

—Old Vaquero Saying

The Whipout Stealfest Continues

November 16, 2012

Went home for lunch and whipped out nothing. Hit the wall. Got part of a windswept canyon going, but had to come back to work. Here's another batch of Whipout Paintings! 


 
Daily Whipouts #36, "Kid In The Clouds II"



 
Daily Whipout #37, "Red Ghost I"



 
Daily Whipout #38, "Cubists at The O.K. Corral"




 
Daily Whipouts #39, "Old Trails"




 
Daily Whipout #40, "Lawton's Scouts: Over The Mogollon Rim And Under A Monsoon Sky"



"Hold yourself responsible to a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself—and be lenient to everybody else"

—Henry Ward Beecher

The French O.K. Corral Fight?

November 16, 2012

   Got a couple new books that really ring my chimes, and being a hard-headed Bell, that is not easy to do. First up, a brand new, hot off the press book by my Kingman compadre, Jim Hinkley:





One of the entries is on Al Bell's Flying A gas station where I iced jugs for free. If you love Route 66 stuff, this is a great Christmas gift (over 1,000 photos).



Meanwhile, I was looking through my vast collection of comics and books on comics, this morning and found this French comic, gifted to me by master collector Paul Andrew Hutton. It's the French version of the O.K. Corral fight.





"Ike. . .Me Vengera," Indeed! Is that French, or Italian?



A week ago, Greg Carroll and I manned the True West table at the Scottsdale Artwalk on Main Street, right outside Abe and Greg Haye's Arizona West Gallery and all night I looked at a Maynard Dixon book in the window (it was straight away from our table). It haunted me all weekend. On the cover was this fantastic painting of wild horses in Nevada ripping up a draw in the moonlight. Yesterday Greg and I went back to Main Street to do some business and see some clients and I walked right in the gallery and bought the book. Here it is:





Damn, that guy was good. Very inspirational.



Meanwhile, the new guy Chad Hays, has posted some of daily whipouts on Pinterest. Check this out:



BBB artwork on Pinterest



"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it."

—Teddy Roosevelt

Nick Bags Jesse, Wyatt, Kid Curry and Texas Ranger

November 15, 2012

   Spent most of the day in Scottsdale. Drove over to the Four Seasons Hotel this morning at the base of Pinnacle Peak with Greg Carroll and Ken Amorosano to attend the AOT (Arizona Office of Tourism) annual convention. Lots of great Arizona towns and businesses there. Met the owners of the Jacob Lake Lodge and plan on going up there to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Always have wanted to explore that area from Kanab to Fredonia. The Navajos and the Hopi were doing a communal painting and encouraging all the white guys to participate. Here's Greg adding a stroke or two to the painting:





Ken added a few bold strokes and then I attempted to blend his strokes to the actual painting which come to think of it is exactly how we approach the publishing business.



If you've been following my Whipped Out paintings sale, you may be interested to know that Nicholas Narog bought five of them. We shipped them at the end of last week and he has them received them and sent this photo of all five:







He actually poached some iconic paintings there, which include Wyatt Earp, Kid Curry, Frank and Jesse James and a Texas Ranger.




"Never trust the teller, always trust the tale."

—D. H. Lawrence

Doc Holliday Keeps Climbing And Is This Jesse James?

November 14, 2012

   Doc Holliday continues to roll. Facebook stats show the good doctor's grave post is at 43,000 page views—and counting. Just amazing. A photograph of a grave!



   Our production manager, Robert Ray is searching for train images to illustrate the new batch of True West Moments we filmed in Durango last August. Jeff Hildebrandt of Encore Westerns sent us a wish list of images to add coverage to the bits. While looking for images on the Library of Congress website, Robert found this:



Is this Jesse James?



Although small, it looks somewhat fake to me, or patched together from a variety of images, but it is new to me. Speaking of train robbers, found this scratchboard in my morgue of a train robbery who let his mask slip during a robbery and the engineer recognized him. Can't remember the outlaw, but I think it was a series on outlaws for the Learning Channel in the mid-nineties. A production house in LA paid me $200 per image to help illustrate the show.





I believe this was based on a train robbery Oklahoma in the 1890s. Here's another scratchboard for your consideration. One of my favorites. Quite loose, but strong.



 
Daily Whipouts #35, "Border Banditos"



I want it!



"Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted, but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known."

—Garrison Keillor

Moon of The Mojaves

November 13, 2012

   We were attacked last night by the Biebers, with the lead javelina ripping at the cardboard on the doggy door. I kept yelling and going out to shoo the little bastard away, but he kept coming back and gnawing on the door with his sharp little tusks. Finally cleared the yard at about eight.



   One of the amazing feats these little obnoxious Biebers do is to come right through our front gate. Here is a photo of the gate. Can you spot where they are coming through?





Okay, see that little sliver of space on the right of the gate? Yes, that six inch opening right here:





We had a pipe spacer in there attached to the adobe wall, but they gnawed right through that like it was taffy. Yes, javelina look like fat pigs, don't they? Yes, I know, they are not pigs.





But I have personally watched a whole herd go through the slit in that gate, so I know they can really slim down when they want to.



Our neighbors Cal and Jon Nelson gifted us a Bieber-Away contraption they made for their yard and they claim it works. It is a rack with four old CDs on it that spin in the wind and reflect sunlight. Allegedly the swirling light freaks them out.





I'll keep you posted on the success of this colorful little contraption.



Woke up this morning and whipped out a little study I call "Moon of the Mojaves".





Full disclosure: I went to school with a Mojave named Moon Nish at Mohave County Union High School. Mojaves are very large and Moon was six foot three. He played tight end on our JV football team and his head was too big for most of the football helmets belonging to the school. Coach Frank Baca finally found a slightly off color yellow helmet (our colors were blue and gold and the regular helmets were gold) that sort of fit him.



Baca had this weird idea that I could be a quarterback. Although I was flattered, it was really because the talented quarterbacks, Wayne Rutschman and Heber Nelson were often called up to varsity and they needed someone to hold down the fort when no one was home. One day in practice, our half back, Bill Blake was not effectively blocking out the tight end, who was, ta da—Vincent "Moon" Nish. Baca, made me drop back to pass over and over so that Moon would crash into Bill Blake and then smash me into the ground. As I dropped back each and every time, all I could see was this off-yellow football helmet coming in on the right, and then, blue sky. I had nightmares about that helmet for many years. Anyway, this is for Moon.







"What does not kill us, makes us slightly neurotic."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Doc Holliday: Thin As A Wisp, Sick As A Dog, Deadly As A Rattlesnake

November 12, 2012

Went home for lunch and whipped out a study, inspired by all the activity on this site over the posting by Chad Hays about Doc Holliday's gravesite.



 
Whipped Out #34, "Thin As A Wisp, Sick As A Dog, Deadly As A Rattlesnake"

I want it!

"I'm your huckleberry, that's just my game."

—Doc Holliday

Doc Holliday Continues to Roll, Ditto for Nicole Kidman

November 12, 2012

   We continue to monitor the Doc Holliday tsunami on our website. Chad Hayes simply posted a photograph of the good doctor's grave and we are currently at 35,000 people reached. This is truly amazing. Had a meeting this morning to figure out why. It's not like we haven't done this before. In fact we've done entire issues about outlaw graves, but nothing has hit a nerve like this.



   Meanwhile, went to see The Paperboy  last weekend and someone asked me what it was about. I told them it's about a Southern slut.





And I mean that in the kindest way possible.



"Lord. Have. Mercy. [Nicole] Kidman gives an astonishing performance"

—Kevin Sessums, Huffington Post

Rattlesnake Killin' Grandma Statue Gains Traction

November 12, 2012

   Got a very nice write-up in the Arizona Republic on Saturday about "Not-So-Gentle Tamer":



   As it says in the article we are having an open house at Bronzesmith this Saturday in Prescott Valley. Here's the invite:







You really need to be there to see this historic tribute. Here is how it looks now and yes, that sucker is 10-feet tall..





You won't believe how impressive it is until you see it in person. That's Ed Reilly in the turquoise shirt, Deb Gessner, the sculptor, and Lora Lee Nye, who has championed this project from day one. I'll be there from 10 to 2, and there will be an open bar so you can't go wrong. See you there.



"It's not the size of the woman in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the woman."

—Old Vaquero Saying

Mr. Beiber I Presume?

November 11, 2012
   Here's a shot of the head Bieber in our back yard, defying me to do anything about him eating all of our chicken feed. I am yelling at him, I am throwing rocks at him and check out his attitude:

"You think I'm afraid of you?"
—Mr. Beiber

More Javelina Madness

 November 10, 2012

   More rain last night. Cool out, low sixties. Went out to the studio at about 6:30 this morning and saw some movement out the back window. i knew immediately what it was and went and grabbed my phone camera and ran around the outside of the studio to surprise the Biebers, who were in full Hoover vacuum mode on the tipped over garbage can ON TOP OF A TABLE!

The photo is a tad blurry because I shot it on the run. These guys climb up on tables, they go through doggy doors, I half expect them to start using my telephone.



"Yes, git your skinny ass over here, there's no one home!"

—The Head Bieber

Arizona Rangers Outside Douglas?

November 9, 2012

   Got rain last night. The air is sweet this morning. Actually cool out, great clouds:



 
Morning Clouds Over Ratcliff Ridge



Went for a walk up Old Stage Road and saw even more dramatic clouds over Continental Mountain:




Rain Clouds Over Continental Mountain


Last night Greg Carroll and I attended Art Walk in Scottsdale. Stopped in at Guidon Books and bought a few, including the new book on Curly Bill by Randolph Farmer and "Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin and a big art book on Edgar Payne (total $117, biz account).



Vincent Murray came out for lunch today and we went next door to Z Asian Fusion. Or is it Z Fusion Asian? Anyway, Vince is working on our site for the Mattie Earp memorial at the Pinal, Arizona Cemetery. Looks like we'll have a dedication in January and all of you will be invited.



Bernie and Melissa Sargent from El Paso came in the True West World Headquarters at three. He's in town to do a wedding for a friend of theirs. The Sargents are big in El Paso history circles. Bernie is the lead dog at the Concordia Cemetery where John Selman and John Wesley Hardin are buried. Melissa does PSA spots for El Paso history (taking over from Leon Metz). Here we are in my office:





We're doing a feature on the Arizona Ranger next spring. Got this photo from Shelly Dudley at Guidon Books last night. I believe this photo of Rangers was taken on a hill outside Douglas or Naco. There are several photos of them on horseback and riding away. Anybody know who these Rangers are?



 

"The problem with close-minded people is that their mouth is always open."

—Old Vaquero Saying