Hualapai Roper

April 4, 2011

Went home for lunch and grabbed a cloud study out of my failure pile. Added a mountain range and a roper. Don't usually do ropers but since it looks like the Hualapais, thought I'd honor my Kingman cowboy cousins.

Since I grew up looking at the Hualapai Mountains I probably subconsciously draw them more than I'd like to admit. This angle would be from the southeast, looking southwest, about where Rattlesnake Ridge is (west of Blake's turnoff).

"A new survey found that 55 percent of men expect to pay on the first date. While the other 45 percent have never been on a second date."

—Jimmy Falon

Al Sieber Stunned

April 4, 2011

Spent the weekend working on several projects including this scene from Mickey Free of a stunned Al Sieber upon hearing of the escape of the Apache Kid:

Also worked on a couple landscape ideas including this one of last light on distant buttes:

A friend of mine, who is a very successful gallery owner gave a brutal assessment of our Friday night art opening in Santa Fe. He looked around the room and said, "If you shook this room down, you wouldn't get $5. These are all your friends. The artist's friends come the second night. The first night is for buyers. You grease the pump by having your best buyers get a crack at the show before the doors open so that there are red dots next to several paintings (a red dot next to the painting indicates it has been sold). This gives the impression that the art opening patrons had better act quick before the paintings are all gone. In order to really make money selling Western art you need two women, one to extract the wife away from the husband, and the other, preferably a babe, to flirt and close the sale on the man before his wife comes back to say no."

"Behind every successful man, is a surprised woman."
—Fred Nolan

Southwest Is A Funny Company

April 2, 2011

Back from Santa Fe and the Thom Ross-Due West Gallery art show on Friday night. Great time. Flew over yesterday morning and came back today. A full report and photos to come.

Stayed at Paul Hutton's house and he drove me to the Albuquerque airport at seven this morning (flight was at 9:15). On the way, I got an automated phone call on my cellphone from Southwest Airlines telling me my flight was being delayed for two hours and would now leave at 11:15. Evidently, a flight from Phoenix to Sacramento had part of its fuselage come off and had to make an emergency landing in Yuma (I overheard a tech guy say they grounded 81 of their planes to be safe).

The automated call was cool. So, rather than sit at the airport, Paul took me to breakfast at the Range and we talked about the state of history and Dixxy Diamond, my new cowgirl super hero idea. Paul had some great input. Got to the airport at 10, went through security, got to gate 11, walked up to the podium and asked the woman at the counter if my flight was still good. She smiled and said, "We were waiting for you, hon."

I absolutely loved this! First off, she was being totally politically incorrect (by calling me "hon"), which, in the current culture is nothing short of brave, and second, she was being funny which I really appreciated. I told her I was quite appreciative of the automated phone call that warned me of the delay and I also told her how much I appreciate Southwest's sense of humor. It got me to thinking: is Southwest the last big company in America that actually still has a sense of humor? I think it might be.

Oh, and on the flight back to Phoenix I sat next to a retired pastor, who was with his wife of 51 years and I asked them if they thought their relationship might work out. The laughed. His wife said a sense of humor is essential. The Reverend Dale then leaned over to me and told me someone once asked Billy Graham's wife if she ever thought about divorce and she replied:

"I have never thought about divorce. Murder, yes."
—Mrs. Billy Graham

Billy In Bonita

March 31, 2011

In meetings all morning, working on our mercantile online store. Lots of new product and cool stuff to buy going up soon. Then shifted gears and went over the Billy the Kid package for June. Going to be stellar stuff. I'm thinking about flying to Denver for the auction of the Kid photo in June.

Meanwhile, our office copies of the May issue came in. Very strong issue. One of the best Mickey Free episodes. May be the last one for a while. Need to move on to other characters. Have a cowgirl super hero I may spring on you. Working up the roughs even as you read this.

Went home for lunch and finished three pieces. Actually four, but one of them, I finished last night. First up is "First Light On Morning Mist":

Then grabbed a study out of my failure pile and tweaked it where it wanted to go and ended up with "Verdant Valley":

Although this one is totally out of my head (no reference, just hand on auto-pilot), it sure looks like the San Tan Mountains southeast of Chandler, Arizona. The irrigation ditch, or natural canyon (take your pick), happened very organically. Some sweet passages in this one.

Also, decided to do a black and white version of "The Country Jake" to feature in an upcoming True West Moment and got this scratchboard down on board:

That's the Hog Ranch at Bonita in the background, where Henry Antrim stole army saddles and horses, and also, where he killed his first man.

Heading for Santa Fe tomorrow and the big art opening at Due West Gallery just off the plaza. Got nine pieces in the show, all Billy the Kid related. Looking forward to the trip, but I must heed ol' Benjamin:

"One today is worth two tomorrows."
—Benjamin Franklin

Running Late (Roger French's Stagecoach painting)

March 30, 2011

Went home for lunch and whipped out a study of twilight dust.

Going to plop a hell-bent-for-leather stagecoach careening towards us, and call it "Running Late". This is a painting I promised to Roger French and I aim to repay him for the great hatbands he has created for me.

"Doing nothing's a dangerous occupation."
—Robert Bolt

Billy the Kid, Street Fighting Man?

March 30, 2011

Pulled a portrait of Billy the Kid out of my failure pille this morning and gave it a go. Kind of overworked it, especially around the mouth, but it has some potential. I was aiming at a cross between the All-American Boy and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones.

It's a tough line to capture. The Kid obviously had a mean streak and he was closer to Keith Richards, in style and demeaner, than say, Paul McCartney or Bruce Springsteen (see Beatle Billy below, bottom row, middle; or The Boss, top row, fifth from left):

The reason I am comparing Billy to bad boy Keith Richards is probably because a neighbor lent me her copy of "Life" the new autobiography of the Rolling Stone lead guitarist and I have been amazed by his candor, honesty and humor. One of the things I learned is that, according to Keith, the Stones didn't make any money until 1967. "There was no money in any of the American tours. Everybody was rooming with everybody. We did the T.A.M.I. show in America late in 1964—the show where we came on after James Brown—to get us back home. We earned $25,000." Keith goes into detail about how many of the promoters either ripped them off, or simply didn't pay them. They did make some cash but Keith claims they spent all their money on traveling expenses (which obviously included illegal substances). Keith claims he never made "real money" until he wrote the song "As Tears Go By" which is way into the game.

I remember playing Stones songs in our high school band, the Exits, in the sixties and imagining what it would be like to be in the bigtime like the Beatles, The Stones and the Dave Clark Five. Ha.

Little did I know that we were making, on average, $30 a night, per man, in the Exits, during the 1964-65-66 tours (of the American Legion and the Elks Club and the Girl's Gym in Kingman). Plus, we were all living with our parents, so that $30 was pure fun money! I guess it's safe to say, we were way ahead of the Stones in terms of actually making money for at least three years.

Here is an illustration of that rivalry, Mick Jagger vs. Bob Boze Bell:

Which one is the real Street Fightin' Man?

"But I try, and I try, and i try and i try—I can't get no, no satisfaction."
—Jagger-Richards

The Origins of The Ten Gallon Hat

March 29, 2011

Working on a new True West Moment on the origins of the term "ten gallon hat." Most people think it came from the idea that the crowns of big hats were so huge they could hold ten gallons of water (see famous Stetson ad of a cowboy holding his fat full of water so his horse can drink).

Actually, the term appears to come from the Spanish, "tan galan," which means "so gallant." Also, galone is a term for fancy braids on a sombrero and if a hat has ten galones it is indeed so gallant. English speakers mangled the term tan galan, or, perhaps were being sarcastic (knowing Texans, I suspect the latter) and mangled it to a ten gallon hat.

"With lots of exceptions, killing yourself is a bad idea."
—Benjamin Alsup

Honkytonk Sue & The History Channel

March 28, 2011

Back in the office, working hard on the next issue, before I fly to Santa Fe this coming Friday evening for the Bang Gang art opening at Due West Gallery, just off the plaza.

This morning I discovered a couple images in my black and white files. One of them, is a sweet little pen and ink of Honkytonk Sue:

This dates from about 1985 and illustrates that even the Queen of Country Swing can have her heart broken.

Yesterday, Kathy and I met the kids downtown at the Matador for breakfast and I picked up a New Times. Inside, an article castigating Yuma, with the headline "A Sense of Yuma," caught my eye. In the article, George Carlin is credited with coining the phrase A Sense of Yuma. Excuse me, but here's a cartoon doubletruck a certain Kingman cartoonist did in the early eighties, in the same newspaper!:

And here's the second page:

Funny, how the Gateway to San Luis one still stands almost 30 years later. Ouch. And, unless someone can site a George Carlin reference to Yuma's "Sense of Yuma," before 1983, I think this textploitation is totally mine.

Going down tonight for a taping of a History Channel doc. Details tomorrow.

"There's many ways to be wrong, and no single way to be right."
—A.O. Scott

The Last Ride of Bonnie McCarroll

March 26, 2011

Had a big-outdoor cowboy breakfast this morning with Jackie Autry, Nege Bogert and Juni Fisher, along with 40 other shooters and Palm Springs locals at Elaine Hill's and her husband John's magnificent casa in Palm Springs. Sat next to and really enjoyed talking with the Western singer Juni Fisher and we made plans to do a feature with her in True West magazine on The Last Ride of Bonnie McCarroll. If you know your rodeo history, you know what we are talking about. Juni did extensive research on the fatal ride and wrote a song about the incident, "Bonnie McCarroll" which is on her classic "Let 'er Go, Let 'er Buck, Let 'er Fly" CD, celebrating 100 years of the Pendleton Round-up. Check her out. She is the real deal.

After a stop back at the Westfest grounds to pick up a dolly, Ken Amorosano and I drove back to Arizona, stopping for burritos at La Paloma in Blythe, one of my family's fave hole-in-the-wall Mexican food restaurants. Had the chicken burrito and a horchata (medium) and got back on the road. Had lots of time to plan big for the magazine. Arrived home at five. Lots of art to catch up on.

Great trip. I had never spent time in Palm Springs. Really pretty canyons and high desert oasis living. New country for me. Great people, lots of history. Glad I made the trip and attended Westfest. Gee I wonder what ol' Tennessee has to say about this?

"Make voyages. Attempt them. There's nothing else."

—Tennessee Williams

Johnny Crawford

March 25, 2011

Went to the Westfest's Frank Bogert Rodeo here in Palm Springs tonight. Ran into Johnny Crawford (the son on "Rifleman"). He raved about the success of the new "True Grit," and how it should encourage more stories about females in the Old West.

Having breakfast with Gene Autry's widow tomorrow.

Palm Springs Westfest Rodeo

March 24, 2011

Ate lunch today at Sherman's Deli in downtown Palm Springs. Had the turkey pastrami sando and vegetable soup. Sat outside. Beautiful day, high sixties. Gave a speech in the Mohave Room at the Renaissance Hotel at one. Ken and I are on the way to a cocktail party for Michael Martin Murphy. Staying at a private residence in Smoke Tree Ranch (Walt Disney used to live in here).

Bob Cook Hates My Magazine

March 23, 2011

Going to treat the staff to lunch today at Cafe Bink in Carefree. We've had two record issues and we are going to celebrate by eating great food and telling big lies.

I promised to tell the story of the old cowboy who confronted me at Orme Ranch last week and Pat Dunn reminded me I haven't told it yet. Here tis:

A week ago I drove up to Orme Ranch to sketch the different buildings on campus for an aerial map illustration I have been hired to complete. Jeb Rosebrook and his son Stuart drove onto campus about five and invited me to join them in Old Main for cocktails and a barbecue ribs dinner. While having a glass of wine I introduced myself to some very nice people from New Mexico and New Hampshire who were there for the annual vaquero ride. Must have been about 50 people in the room. They asked what I did and I told them. A few minutes later, one of the wranglers for the ride, an old, grizzled cowboy stumbled by (old cowboys always walk like they've just broken both legs) and someone said, "Hello, Bob Cook. Have you met Bob Boze Bell. He runs True West magazine?"

Mr. Cook looked me straight in the eye and said, "I know who you are. You ruined my favorite magazine." Everyone kind of froze. Bob Cook, in typical cowboy fashion, was very direct, adding, "I used to collect this magazine, but I hated what you did with it when you moved to Cave Creek." He walked away. Everyone kind of cringed, but I laughed and said, "You've got to love cowboys, they tell it to you straight, without ducking, or pretending to be nice."

Two minutes later, Bob came back and we both laughed. I told him I understood his opinion, since I have more than a few friends who agree with him. I told him I loved the old magazine as well but couldn't make it pay the old way. Mr. Cook loosened up and started to tell me stories about running a trading post on the Navajo res in the 1950s and early 1960s. Said he had delivered babies and buried bodies. I asked him to give me an example and he said one day a very pregnant Navajo woman staggered in to his trading post and asked for a ride to the hospital in Gallup. Bob told her his truck was out on deliveries and wouldn't be back for a couple hours. She collapsed. He took her in the back, and in the Navajo tradition, hung her from her armpits, up off the floor, caught the baby, cut the cord, gave her a new blanket and she then proceeded to walk six miles home!

He also told me how he sold the last Studebaker wagon in 1964. Sold it for $600. I remember seeing those wagons up and down the highway, when our family drove through the res in the early 1960s on our way to Iowa. They were all gone in a decade, and today you don't see any.

I told Bob Cook I was going to sic a writer on him and get some of these great stories and run it in the magazine he hates so much. He laughed and gave me his card.

I love these old guys, even the ones who hate my magazine.

Found an intriguing page of sketches in one of my 10,000 Bad Drawings Sketchooks from a couple years ago:

Nice colors and the guy at bottom, is, of course, a favorite outlaw of ours.

"On the Plains of Hesitation bleach the bones of countless millions who, at the dawn of Victory, sat down to wait, and waiting—died!"
—George W. Cecil

Billy the Jake

March 22, 2010

To give you an idea just how deep my failure pile is, I dug deep this morning and found this failed painting, "Billy the Jake" from 1991. The painting was inspired by Gus Gildea's line about seeing young Henry in Bonita, Arizona (1876): "He came to town dressed like a country jake with shoes instead of boots. He wore his six-shooter stuck in his trousers."

As you can see it has a frustrated splat of paint at the bottom, which signifies my anger at ruining this piece. However, when I pulled it out this morning, I thought it had some potential and added a wash to see if I could perhaps redeem it. Not bad. Going to work on it some more.

I also found myself rooting around in my 10,000 Bad Drawings Sketchbooks where I found this amazing page from almost two years ago:

The drawings were studies for a Classic Gunfight we did on the Jeff Kidder shooting in Naco, Mexico. Kidder was an Arizona Ranger. Incredibly, these sketches are much livelier than anything I ended up using in the article.

Here's another page of sketches from the same sketchbook:

Yes, that's Col. Tim McCoy and his lovely wife (she "dated" JFK). I think this page of sketches summarizes my life passions almost better than anything I have ever attempted, right down to the amber glow.

Froggy Hauan and his wife Frogette, I mean Trudy, came out last night and after buying one of my paintings to take to the Gun Bank in Thompson, Iowa, they treated me to dinner at El Encanto. Had the fish tacos, trying to eat healthy (see next item). Fun talking about old times. I mentioned that, growing up in Kingman, my father got me a Ford pickup to drive to school in and Froggy said, "That's child abuse."

Even my father, a lifelong Ford man, would have had a good laugh over that one.

It was three years ago today, I was playing "Wipeout" at the old Elks Lodge in Kingman, Arizona. Three guys, Wayne and Cody Rutschman and Terry Mitchell saved my life. Oh, and Dr. Michael Ward of Kingman Regional. Thanks guys.

"In life, night comes. In literature, the sun always rises."
—Jill Lepore

Wyatt's First Ride vs. John Ringo's Last Ride

March 21, 2011

Ran into Greg Worley at Festival of the West last weekend and he told me about a new indie Western on Wyatt Earp that just wrapped (Greg plays a cowboy in the film). It will star Val Kilmer as an aged Wyatt Earp telling the story of the shooting of Dora Hand in Dodge City, which in turn led to one of the most intrepid posses ever to saddle up in the history of the west. Val will allegedly bookend the movie, but in the actual ride down, Wyatt will be played by Shawn Roberts, Bat Masterson will be played by Matt Dallas, Bill Tilghman will be played by Levi Siehler, Scott White plays Charlie Bassett and Trace Atkins plays old man Kennedy (the Texas cattle baron who got his son off scott free). Michael Feifer is the producer and director. The film was shot at the Paramount Movie Ranch and Caravan West Ranch. Since it's an indie, they are looking for a distributor, so spread the word.

From Wyatt's First Ride to John Ringo's Last Ride

Worked all four days of the festival, but did manage to do a study I call "John Ringo's Last Ride," portraying the outlaw cowboy of Cochise County on his last bender (see empty whiskey bottle at bottom, left). Kind of blew it on the final push. Overworked the horse and rider adding too much detail. Ruined the dust effect. Need to be more careful on final.

A shout out to Hondo Ray, a New Yorker, who attends the Festival of the West every year. Saw plenty of old friends. Talked to Peter Brown (Lawman) who is doing a new show "Shootin' The Breeze". Interviewed Lynn Anderson ("I Never Promised You A Rose Garden") for an upcoming What History Has Taught Me. Ken A. and I had breakfast with my producer at the Westerns Channel, Jeff Hildebrandt this morning, to talk about a few ideas we have.

We framed one of our True Grit covers and brought it along to Festival of the West. Could have sold a dozen of the puppies. Everyone raving about the image. Credit where credit is due: It was our art director Dan "The Man" Harshberger who came up with the design and the tag line, "Wrong eye, Pilgrim!" Everyone cracks up when they see it.

Going to be doing an art show in Santa Fe, New Mexico on April 1. Artist and gang member Thom Ross has sprung for new gallery digs just off the plaza. Thom asked me and Davy Powell, Buckeye Blake and a couple other guys to join him in the venture. He wants only outlaw artists, so we threw around names for the group. I told Thom we needed a name somewhere between The Taos Seven and The Chicago Eight. That led us to jokingly come up with The Gang of Bang! and then Thom said, 'What about The Bang Gang?" I said, "That is perfect! That's exactly who we are and I would love to be part of an outlaw group with the name—The Bang Gang. Count me in."

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function."

—F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Mexicali Stud

March 18, 2011

Went out to the first day of Festival of the West yesterday and met some great people. Always fun to see the fanatic and the faithful. Ran into Jeff Hildebrandt of the Westerns Channel. Here's an inside peek at the Starz-Encore empire. I believe they have some 17 cable channels and the Westerns Channel pulls 31 million views, which is about three million more than their other, more heavily promoted channels. I run into people almost every day who tell me they watch the Westerns Channel more than any other station (and their wives usually roll their eyes as they say this, verifying their dedicated infatuation).

Got up this morning and grabbed a study out of my Failure Pile, adding a vaquero rider on a stallion strutting across the tundra:

This is going to be a sequence for a new Graphic Cinema story to be called "The Mexicali Stud."

Failure Pile Examples
When I say I grabbed a study out of the Failure Pile, I'm referring to scenes like this, which I did last night when I got home from work:

What I try to do, is stay loose, push wet brushes around, adding complimentary colors and not try to make it into something. This is very relaxing and I very much enjoy the exercise. The goal: no expectation of any kind.

Here's an example of a Failure Pile piece that is in the second phase of development:

This started as a blob of shapes, similar to the first piece. In the second phase of my attack, i started to see the clouds and land mass and bent the paint in that direction. The dust in the right, center area was an afterthought, created by swabbing a water soaked brush into that area and rubbing it with a paper towel (one swipe, not two). Very dynamic, but now I am stuck at phase two: what will I put in that space? Two riders? A column of troopers? Apaches with stolen horses? A dune buggy? Sarah Palin chasing a liberal on foot in Mexico?

It may be a couple years before I get the inspiration or courage to take this to the finish line.

I'm on my way to Palm Springs next Thursday for the big West Fest & Rodeo. Going to be speaking on Thursday and Friday at the event. More details as we get closer.

As you know, I often go home for lunch and whip out one of these studies. A friend of mine on Facebook posted this today:

"Went home for lunch, ate a green burrito, then had a nap. where did i go wrong?"
—Mike Hutchinson

Nine Doomed Riders

March 17, 2011

Got up this morning and grabbed a painting out of my failure pile. Quickly added nine riders and three Yavapai warriors (checking them out from behind the boulders in foreground). Went to yoga and during a warrior pose, started bleeding out of my nose. This turned out to be a reaction to the dental procedure I had yesterday.

Came into work, scanned the painting and realized it was supposed to be five riders and three pack horses, so eight horses, not nine. So, in the final, you will notice that one of them has been magically removed. My favorite thing about this painting is the boulder in the foreground and the bushes on the Yavapai's head, bottom, center. This was actually practiced by all the Indian tribes but I don't recall ever seeing it in a movie. Am I wrong? I must be wrong, it's just too prevalent in the literature. Apaches are seen in photographs wearing bushes on their heads, or turkey feathers, which simulated wild turkeys, so they could peek over a rock or ridge and blend in, while on the scout for game or enemies.

Of course, these Yavapais (and 147 others) attacked the five prospectors at a place in the Silver Mountains (later named The Bradshaws) at a place that became known as Battle Flat. Although the Indians paid a high price (the rescuers of the besieged prospectors claimed to have found 13 dead warriors after the battle) the Yavapais got most of their supplies and ate the prospector's horses.

"There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities."
—John Edward Dalberg

Albert Bierstadt & Dental Tools Get My Goat

March 16, 2011

Had a major dental appointment this morning at 8:30. While in the dental chair listening to the soothing tones of a suction tube (I won't bore you with the procedure, but here's a two-word hint: sinus infill), I got the inspiration for a painting to be called "Before The Flash," which will be what it looked like in old Fort Sumner, in the winter of 1880, just outside Beaver Smith's Saloon as the photographer set up and the Kid's pals milled around, kicking their boots against the back steps and kidding each other about the weather and the finer attributes of the law. Laughing, the boy outlaw steps into position as the photographer's assistant readjusts the neck brace (that's what gave me the flash of inspiration) and then the flash that exposes the inner camera to the most famous image in the history of the Old West.

Sketches and studies to follow.

The dental procedure cost about $3,600, plus $115 for pain prescriptions. My dental insurance ($81 a month) will probably pay about 1/100th of that. What a country! What a system!

Went home for lunch and pulled a painting out of my Failure Pile. This was a ruined, muddy attempt at emulating Albert Bierstadt's "Storm in the Rock Mountains" (1866). Tried to rectify several problems, saving one patch and making another worse (sound vaguely familiar?) I call this "She Stood In The Clearing—Bitching About The Weather."

You can blame the cynical tone of the title on my mouth condition at the moment. Bierdstadt was such a monster painter. His transitions are so bold and yet subtle and his expansive views of the west in the 1860s made him a superstar. Unfortunately, his style and fame faded rather quickly, making him, by the 1880s, sort of the Three Dog Night of the art world (huge in their day, tiny a decade or two later).

Yesterday afternoon I drove up to Orme Ranch School, north of Cordes Junction on the Dugas Road exit off of I-17, and did some more due diligence sketches of the campus for the illustrated aerial map I have been commissioned to do.

On the way up the Black Canyon, I looked over at the Bradshaw Mountains and imagined what it must have been like to be the five prospectors who were attacked by 150 Yavapais in June of 1864 (we are doing the battle in the next Classic Gunfights in True West). Very rough country.

After sketching the campus, at 5:30 I joined a Vaquero riding group for cocktails in Old Main and was ambushed and attacked by an old timer (a wrangler on the ride) who accused me of ruining True West. His story in the next post.

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."
—Teddy Roosevelt

Deep In The O.K. Corral

March 15, 2011

Grabbed a painting out of my failure pile this morning and tweaked the whispy, ghost-like nature of the figure. Lost it, found it again, worried about overworking (ironic because I gave up on it the first time because it was, ahem, overworked). Anyway, that led to this scnenario.

Mickey's Dreamgirl Is In The House
She came to Mickey Free in a dream, walking through the abandoned adobe, her feet barely touching the cold, packed earth.

Not too shabby. Got some ghost-like attributes. She's a little bit too much Vegas stripper, but then I would imagine Mickey would have responded well to that style of muse.

Today is the anniversary of the Benson Stage Robbery, that led indirectly to the O.K. Corral fight. Yesterday, I went home for lunch and whipped out a little study I call "Deep In The Lot."

This is based on an actual photograph of Fly's side yard (most likely taken by Fly himself). The photo belongs to Steve Elliott of Tombstone and shows a burro standing in the space between Fly's boarding house and the small house west of there. Take out the burro and put in the frenzied figures of eight men and two horses, in an 18 feet space, and you have a ground view seat at the most famous gunfight in Old West history.

Of course this portrays the event more as an side-yard, alley shootout, rather than an open field epic showdown, but then that is the reality of the historical scene, not the myth. Gee, I wonder what ol' JFK has to say about this?

"The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie—deliberate, contrived and dishonest—but the myth—persistent, persuasive and unrealistic."
—John F. Kennedy

Checking The Back Trail, II

March 14, 2011

Worked all weekend on several fronts. Working up an aerial illustrated map of Orme School and spent some time doing due diligence on perspective drawings of complicated buildings from the air. Not an easy thing to do.

Finally executed a key scene in the next installment of Mickey Free. After the fire fight in the mountains, Mickey and his trusty mammoth jack made it safely past the blazing inferno, and on to a river where the two bed down for the night. In the morning, Mick led Tu into the water and rubbed his sore sides, burnt and blackened from the fire. inspecting the big mule's face, Mick laughs, seeing that Tu's eyelashes are gone, not realizing that his look the same way:

Nice effects on the sides of the mule. Not easy to do, but I had good reference, and even a blind dog finds an acorn from time to time.

Meanwhile, took another crack at "Checking Out The Back Trail" and may use this scene to begin the Fire Fighter episode of Graphic Cinema:

Yes, those are Frank Tenney Johnson inspired boulders. Also, took another crack at Last Light On Morningstar and got some decent effects going.

Like the shape of Sugarloaf Butte better in this one. This makes the ninth attempt at this particular scene. I need to develop the foreground, adding saguaros, etc. Should about have it, with ten attempts, although I have been told that Maynard Dixon sometimes did 85 studies before he went to a final.

Saw three movies this weekend: "127 Hours," "Inside Job," and "Love And Other Drugs." Really enjoyed "Inside Job" an Academy Award winning doc on how we now have a Wall Street government. "127 Hours" was excrutiating and well done, but it wasn't my idea of fun. Kathy actually enjoyed it more than me. Loved the nudity in "Love and Other Drugs" but thought the story was a little forced towards the end.

"Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity."
—Charles Mingus

True West Moments at Ranching Heritage Center

March 11, 2011

Just discovered a couple of the True West Moments I recorded in Lubbock, Texas a year ago for the Westerns Channel. Here's the link: