Monday, February 27, 2012

Bieke's painting and memories



When I was a young one, living in Antwerp, I fell in with a group of American expats. We all were drawn to The Folkcenter and The Matthijs, where Tony, Deroll Adams, and Norris held court. Those were the years when I took a little dip in the waters of folk singing myself but soon found out that I didn’t have the nerves to be a performer.
So, I crawled back into my pen.
Then I went and lived in England for a year. Tony went off somewhere. When I returned to Antwerp, he had come back as well. He would come and visit me and I would spend hours listening to his stories. He also played guitar for my baby son, who has grown into quite an accomplished guitarist.
One day, talking to Tony, I told him I was looking for a gift for my parents. The next time we met, he presented me with this painting of a mother and child. When I wanted to pay him, he refused the money. That was Tony: a golden heart, a wonderful painter, and a great story teller both with his guitar and with words.
I left for Canada, after that. He went god knows where. One day, about thirty years ago, I happened upon him as he was busking somewhere in Antwerp. Still Tony, still doing the same thing, still true to his inner voice. We talked for a while. Then a good ten years later, I was visiting Antwerp again and there he was again, at the same spot, busking. It wasn’t as if he had been there all that time. No, he had just come back from the States and I was there, as usual, for a short visit and on a rare occasion when I was not being driven by a family member.
It was one of those wonderful twists of fate.
This time he invited me to visit with him and, that evening, I reconnected with Annmarie, whom I hadn’t seen since those youthful days of the Folkcenter. I must say that I feel privileged to have known this man and to have called him my friend.
 And I am delighted to be able to visit with him on this blog.

Bieke Stengos (Cammaert)

Monday, February 20, 2012

Trail of tears

Nunna daul Isunyi

High mountans over the land of our fathers
were good to die


1838 Tears from my people


Singing "Amazig Grace" untill the end.



Saving the native future on the way to Oklahoma

Tony was partial Cherokee on his fathers side and was interested in all things Native American. His brother Bill found in Blythe,California a bunch of black and white pottery shards, older than black and white shards known before. He often felt unaccepted by other Native Americans, being rather fair skinned. He cherished his history however. This painting is a mixed medium: oil and pastels. He has done many other paintings about The trail of Tears. This wonderful drawing is in Antwerp, other pieces are in the USA.

Tony Mafia
Antwerpen 1983

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Muziekdoos


Zo lang geleden
Tony was my friend,and has been my inspiration ever since we shared a life in Antwerp with Tommy
and Sonja,Robin Rowley, Mieke and Eric, the two Ingrids,Vivien, Fidler John, Callum, Paddy Tinsley,
Vera of the mural wall, Frederica and the kids......the nights at Etiene's "Muziekdoos", the Billekletser
where I cooked, Dave Greerley, Scots Greg.......six memorable years on another planet, zo lang
geleden...........

As I now tell of that time to my teenage daughter, she finds that whacky world all hard to believe.
She trawls the Internet and returns yelling "it's all true, I found Tony Mafia" I am indebted to her I.T.
skills to help me with this blogpost.

I heard of Derrols death on the radio just a couple of years ago, and of Tony's just last night.
For those of you who are still out there - please contact me -
mike@thegreatyokshiredragon.com
I am one of a team that run a mad venue in Hull, come visit www.facebook.com/hullboathouse

Mike Stone
This nice drawing is from 1982, pen and ink, Antwerp
It shows the buskers, with banjo, flute
The text reads: Just a bit more shit, but I must start somewhere...

Friday, February 17, 2012

Mother and child



Watercolor, Antwerp, 1983
Flowers and field...

Monday, February 13, 2012

Guapa de Anversa



Found where she was lost
Waiting for you
in tenderness and blue


Oil 1992, painted in the Kloosterstraat.

Monday, February 6, 2012

End of Romance



Tony was an artist with a restless soul.
Whenever he was confronted with challenges and setbacks he found consolation in his home country.
Every time he left he had to say goodbye to a lover and this was food for his creativity and work.
This painting shows the unbearable pain and sorrow of saying goodbye.

Oil painting 1983, Antwerp, in the distress of a break up