The Muldoons showings of 1987

During 1987, and because I was now adept with my markers and had a house full of paintings, in various states of completion, I did two shows at Muldoons. The usual effort, as it had now become, and a second

in July. The first show had the Vangoghs and the marker drawings of the Guitar Players, the second

show had paintings done from a trip to Grand Bahama Island and the Guitar Players in oil, converted

from markers.

At the first show I sold the Portrait of Vincent VanGogh, the same one my mothers had filed in the crawl space, to David Winter and learned another lesson from him. I had thought he would buy the Sower, and we

had talked about $100, up from my usual $35, but when he saw the Sower he said "what's that funny

stuff on the tree?" I learned not to assume people were going to buy anything. He was, also, right.

In my haste to finish the painting I'd rushed my reds and greens, which were suppose to be a soft

reflection of light, and the sky onto the black of the tree, and botched the painting.

David was correct. It wasn't good enough. The second show had some dreadful paintings in it, and they remain, today rolled up and away from eyes that may be injured just looking at them. One notable

exception, David again bought a painting of a scene done very late, and very drunk at a disco in one of

Jack Tarr Villages. He says he bought this because there's a figure in it that reminded him of himself.

I never did manage to sell the VanGoghs I'd worked so hard at to duplicate, and I was surprised by that.

I'd thought they would sell, but then again, I never know what anybodies going to buy. I made a deal

with the night bartender, he would get 10% of anything he was able to find a buyer for and I left the

painting on a wall, opposite from where they usually were, or had been. I checked back several

times and the last deal I heard was a guy offered $125 for five paintings because he wanted to take them home, cut them up, and make a collage. I brought the paintings home shortly after hearing that deal,

and try not to think about this “deal” too much

Note:

The last two paintings in this section are Jack Tarr Disco Drunkenness and a marker work of a

Toulouse-Lautrec called At The Moulin Rouge.

The first was done, on-site, causing quite a stir, while my wife and I had quite a great falling out, right

there, in public. Not recommended, says I. The second, the marker because it was fun.

Jack Tarr Disco Drunkenness (1987)

"free drinks. by one AM brings out the strangest of scenes.

everything melts together".

Moulin Rouge -(Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, 1901)

"hey, wait a minute,

I remember that scene from the Navy".