Tony Mafia, the painter

can you see

2012-01-28T07:41:00.000-08:00

Give me death and a dragon then my eyes can close,
I give this and all of yesterday cariing.
Can you see.
Antwerp 1982

Mexican indepence

2011-12-07T10:59:00.000-08:00

That was title under which this picture of a double multi media drawing came to me. It is a pity I can't read the text, nor the date. It is a lovely piece, done in Antwerp, with oil and pastels on the typical heavy German paper he loved to use and of course a landscape in the background. There is one other oil on canvas with pyramids. You'll find it on the blog under pigs and pyramids.
Who knows more, I wrote yesterday and see, I was send a better picture and a tentative reading of the text.: So they sent there war and the venrion???? on our dislove. Lay next to lovers as the sky bled...

See the green snake of envy?

Matter and no matter

2011-11-27T05:11:00.000-08:00

I have seen similar etchings by Tony Mafia, etchings probably done early seventies in LA. He would moisten the etching paper and imprint the forms he needed to complete the etching on the plates, thus combining figurative art and abstract art. I always liked that technique. These etchings too can be acquired through:

Jeannie Ott, located in Las Vegas
jott777@cox.net
702-450-3288
I hope all the work finds a loving home.

Antwerp Jews

2011-11-24T09:09:00.000-08:00

These two etchings are from Antwerp when Tony Mafia lived in the Korte Herentalse straat in the Jewish quarter, in 1969, leaving Antwerp with his then wife Anna and their two children half of January. Tony Mafia was fascinated by the different appearances. I seem to remember there were four different etchings in all. I saw the smallest one, not included here, being priced at $ 125 in 1979 in his Gallery in Los Angeles. Sorry I forgot the name of the Gallery.
If you're interested contact: jott777@cox.net
702-450-3288
She is located in Las Vegas

A Las Vegas offer

2011-11-23T06:15:00.000-08:00

This lighthearted watercolor drawing is from the late sixties and has spend its life in Las Vegas

This mother and child, pen and ink drawing was made in 1977. Tony often depicted these intimate scenes. here it is a young Mexican boy.

Two lovers in pen and ink...
The lady who contacted me wrote:
Hi, I hope you can help me sell my terrific Tony Mafia art work, If you know anyone collecting Tony Mafia please pass on my message and pictures. I'll send sizes if there is interest. Trusting the pictures arrive open as I'm sending them. I must down size, and sell now.
Thank you for your time and consideration .
sincerely Jeannie Ott

jott777@cox.net
702-450-3288
I'm located in Las Vegas

Some one is selling a Tony Mafia at Campo en Campo

2011-10-12T07:46:00.000-07:00

auction lot : 175

MAFIA TONY

De cyclus van het leven.
Le cycle de la vie
Gemengde techniek. Technique mixte/papier. .
Get. Sig. 1983 3 x 106 x 77 cm

5000/6000 €

previous lot

These tree drawings are called the Cycle of life.

Aldo's Memory

2011-08-28T06:18:00.000-07:00

The attached picture sets the clock back with 27 years and takes us to – probably- the most favorite place in the world of any 5-year-old; the city fair.

Seated in Tony Maffia’s neck, I stare at yellow, plastic ducklings which are swimming in a water bassin of one of Antwerp’s “finest” carnival stands.

The prices, which we can gain by catching as many ducklings as possible, are extremely big and colorful , almost disproportional to what we are asked to do in exchange for receiving such a trophee.

The ducklings have challenged us. We both feel the adrenaline rushing through our vains and, as we take a deep breath, we know which adventure lies ahead of us.

I guess this best gives words to what I thought of Tony. In my eyes he was never the person I see on the picture today; a white-haired man at least fifty years older than I was.

Rather, I saw him as a contemporary and an accomplice who was ready to discover the world with me. At the time, I was too young to relate my fellow adventurer Tony to ‘Tony Mafia’, the painter. He was extremely young at heart and always ready to share both my happiness and sorrow.

As I grew older, I realized that Tony had captured our mutual spirit for discovery in his paintings.

To this day, every painting of Tony remains a discovery to me; in color, in pattern and story. Every time I look at one of Tony’s works, I notice something different. Every time I stare at his paintings, I see something new.

And, like the picture attached, such a painting takes me back 27 years in time. Back to being that 5-year-old boy, ready to catch as many fair ducklings as he can.

Aldo de Pape

Thank you so much Aldo!

Ken Post's Tony song

2011-08-18T03:03:00.000-07:00

TONY MAFIA

HE WAS PAINTING

ON THE STREETS OF PARIS

HENRI MATISSE PASSED HIS

WAY IF YOU KEEP ON PAINTING

LIKE THAT YOU LL BECOME A

MASTER ONE DAY

AND HE DID BECOME A MASTER

BUT YOU ’ VE NEVER HEARD HIS

NAME HE MUST HAVE BEEN BORN

UNDER AN OBSCURE STAR

BECAUSE THAT IS WHERE HE

STAYED

WIH THE INTENSITY OF A

TOREADOR POISED WITH

PALETTE AND BRUSH DANCING

IN FRONT OF THE CANVAS

PAINTING WITH A LUSH TOUCH

MIGHT BE A LYRICAL PORTRAIT

OR A COMPLEX STORY

ONE DAY HE SPUN AROUND

AND HE TOLD ANNMARIE

REMEMBER ME

BY MY BRUSH STROKES

HE LOVED A ROLLICKING DIRTY

DITTY AND A PASSIONATE

SPANISH STRUM

IF YOU TOLD HIM

YOU LIKED HIS SHIRT HE’ D TAKE

IT OFF AND GET A NEW ONE

I’ M IN THE COLLECTIONS OF

SINATRA AND THE ENGLISH

QUEEN HE’ D SAY THEN GO OUT

AND SING FOR HIS SUPPER ,

BUSKING IN THE

REMAINS OF THE DAY

WHY SOME BECOME

RICH AND FAMOUS IS A

CURIOUS THING TO SPECULATE

WE ALL HAVE OUR INDIVIDUAL

MAGNIFICENCE AND THEN

ITS UP TO FATE

SOME ARE BORN

IN THE BACK OF TAXI CABS

OTHERS IN STABLES

ON BALES OF HAY

TONY WAS BORN

ON A POOL TABLE IN LAS VEGAS

WHEN HIS MAMA DROPPED HIM

BEHIND THE 8 BALL

BORN BETWEEN THE IRISH

AND THE CHEROKEE

LIVING BETWEEN THE DESERT

OF ARIZONA AND THE SWAMP

OF ANTWERPEN BELGIE

SCATTERING HIS SEED AND

SPATTERING HIS PAINTS

LIVING IN THE PRESENT

WITHOUT RESTRAINTS

SO RUMORS OF TONY ’S DEMISE

CIRCULATED EVERY FEW YEARS

BUT WHEN HE DIED IN ‘99 THE

STORIES OF HIS EXPLOITS

BROUGHT LAUGHTER AND TEARS

ANNMARIE TOOK HIM BACK TO

THE DESERT WHERE THEY

LOWERED HIM INTO THE EARTH

THEN ALL WATCHED AS THE

WIND PICKED UP , SWIRLED &

CARRIED HIS SPIRIT BACK TO

THE PLACE BEFORE HIS BIRTH

Thank you Ken for your testimony.

Dan

2011-07-16T00:38:00.000-07:00

I remember Tony talking about working with gold and silver. I never saw one of the pieces he did. Dan wrote: Tony gave me silver and gold ring in 1968. I didn't have it long before some SOB stole it from me. I should have taken better care of my gift.

Please Dan tell me more about what you remember and know about Tony. If you have pictures of his work or from himself please mail them to fourthandplum@hotmail.com

2011-07-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

This piece was discovered on the internet by Jim VL, a dear friend who still cares about Tony's work. The caption underneath is from the seller. As far as I can tell it is accurate. Thanks Jim.

This is a gorgeous modernist work by well known contemporary artist (and personality) Tony Mafia (1931-1999); recently recovered from a Los Angeles estate. Fine art galleries sell pieces by Tony Mafia for several thousands of dollars but this fantastic work is being offered at far below what you would find in any gallery. Tony Mafia's works are known the world over. He lived in Los Angeles, Tijuana, Mexico, Antwerp, Belgium, etc - and counted numerous celebrities and notables among his collectors and friends. Paintings of his hang in fine museums throughout the world, including: The Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen; Chicago Art Institute; Museum of Mexico City; Boston Museum of Modern Art, etc. Please read below for specifics regarding this piece.

Tony's jewelry

2011-07-13T06:32:00.000-07:00

Melinda wrote me following comment on Tnry's blog: Hi, I purchased a wonderful huge unsigned chunky Sterling Silver ring that I was told was made by Tony Mafia. The people I purchased it from said that they personally knew him and that it was probably the only piece of jewelry that he made. It is cast and abstract. It has a man and woman's head on it. The man has a large mustache. Do you have any idea if this story could be true? If so, any idea of value? If you know anything or would like a picture do contact me. So I did because I truly believe it is a piece done by Tony. He used to have a metal box in which he had jewelry making tools. I have seen it. I don't know whether this is the only know piece or whether he made several pieces. He has done several sculptures and the style and dealing with the material really looks it could have been a piece Tony made.

As to value, I don't really know: he used to say for a handful of love or a bag of peanuts. It is a rare piece, so to someone collecting Tony's work it might add something special to their collection.

I remember a story of two lawyers in California who in the 70's flew him over for a party because they had their 300 st piece of work by him, even a plaster cast he made as a child. I don't know the name of these good people. Maybe someone does... Maybe there are people out there who would like to see or own more Tony Mafia's. Maybe somewhere out there, there is a Tony Mafia foundation...

Nello's dream

2011-05-18T03:33:00.000-07:00

Tonight there is an other meeting of the Nello's dream society and Tony will once again be remembered by his friends... He has been gone for 12 years now and he still manages to touch people.
Here a picture of Indians dreaming of dancing...

Tony's helpers

2011-02-01T01:33:00.000-08:00

Ah, good taste, what a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness. -Pablo Picasso, painter and sculptor (1881-1973.

I start with this quote because it might be felt to be not too elegant what I am about to write. A series of people have stood steadfast by Tony Mafia's side during his life which has known many down and out periods. I want with this post to honor these friends who provided him with a means of transportation, who kept him fed, whom he cajoled when his children came to Antwerp so that he could feed them and show them a good time.
In random order I honor: Anke and Sam Nassi, who traded a painting for a car, Dale Root who gave him a very good guitar when he didn't have one, Doug Lyon who let him have his Shell gas card. This is not publicity for the oil company but it was one of the brands where one could by milk and sandwiches before it became a normal thing. He kept Tony fed during a a long time. Doug would also slip him some money. Then in Belgium Paula and Wim van Hees who ended up with a nice collection of Tony's work. Jim Van Leemput, Guy and Anne Sijssen, the dentist who did Tony's teeth in exchange for drawing and painting classes. Arnold De Paepe, the veterinarian who would give him prescriptions for his heart medication. I should not forget the people of Antwerp who threw a coin in his guitar case when he was busking in the street, often not even making enough money for a meal in 'Het Hofke'. Friends of friends who bought a drawing, the collector Harry Kegels who has a wonderful collection of Tony's work, sometimes being given the drawings or oil, other times when Tony really needed the money paying a fair prize. The hookers of Antwerp who made their John's buy a drawing for them and thus kept Tony's rent paid. I am sure I am forgetting people, I am sure I don't know all the people who showed kindness toward him. Yes, he was often a starving artist, living in the dumpiest places without heat... Or alone in a tiny trailer on top of a mountain because it was only 75 $ per month. And even then loosing the land for non-payment...

These are facts. The story of Tony's life is his story, and he told it well, stylized and lighthearted. Were they lies? I think it was the truth as he saw it. Other people involved in his life may have a very different take on what happened, may have had other expectations of him. He was not an easy person, yet most people who met him, where touched and came out a better person with more beauty in their soul.

Nello's dream

2010-12-21T01:18:00.000-08:00

So many years later Tony's work still unleashes emotions in Hoboken. Claude, here in the picture of the newspaper which picked up the story, alerted me to the fact that Tony's painting 'Nello's Dream' was in storage in a cellar since the closure of the information center. Not living in Hoboken anymore, I hadn't caught up on the fact. So I wrote a kind letter- in the press they wrote a disgruntled letter- made a phone call and behold the district secretary personally hung the painting again against the wishes of those who thought the colors clashed with the wall... Well All is good that ends good and I do wish to thank all who made it happen.

Nello and Patrache

2010-12-13T06:56:00.000-08:00

The old story which played out in Hoboken near Antwerp, was dear to Tony's heart. he identified with Nello, who was also a good painter. After some reshuffling in the district the painting had vanished and people who care alerted the blog. A few telephone conversations further and one letter, I am glad to announce that the paiting: Nello's dream will be displayed again in the districts house of Hoboken. Good news!

Watercolor lady

2010-11-18T02:28:00.000-08:00

When I was contacted for some information by Kari about the above piece I wrote: It looks like an early work of Tony. I would guess between 65 and 75... based on other work from that period I have seen. How did you come by it? Was it a gift. It definitely is an original. Thanks for sharing. Her answer was:

Hi'
So nice to hear from you.. I have had the painting for about ten years. Got it at an estate sale in the fairfax district. Embarrassed to say first I was attracted to the colors as they matched my bedroom. Well once I got it up, I really loved it. I see it first thing in the morning and literally discover something new all the time. I think it was months before I realized she was in front of a mirror! I see new colors,facial expressions and even clothing whenever I really focus. I never researched the art because I just loved it. I have been low on funds and selling a few things in the house and thought "lets just check it out"
Reading your blog has been fascinating and I sure wish I had met Tony. Great to hear she is original, but the whole story is too cool to want to let her go anytime soon!
My husband has the picture on his laptop.and my tech savy is lacking. I will get him to send it to you, but wanted to return your kind note A.S.A.P. Thanks again! Kari

It is good to complete the collection of Tony's work online. Thanks to all who share their work with the rest of the world.

Family Portrait?

2010-09-28T11:42:00.000-07:00

Kim send me a picture of this oil painting requesting some information. The best I can do is confirm that it is an early sixties painting by Tony. The lady in it could be Anne. The male figure is not a self portrait, but a more Mexican type. This could mean the painting could be from the period he lived between Tijuana and Los Angeles. He must have been in a romantic mood when painting it. Thanks for sharing

Animals

2010-09-09T11:38:00.000-07:00

I received a comment on the post of December 28, 2008: The Animals. I had written it was from de DL collection. It is part of the pictures a dear friend, living in Los Angeles took over the years of Tony's work. That is what it means.

The missing melody

2010-09-08T00:06:00.000-07:00

For those who never saw a bit of acting by Tony Mafia here is a rare occasion at Youtube

Tony as a young waiter and very serious indeed.

Thank you David for sending me this link.

Whisky-A-Go-Go

2010-05-30T09:15:00.000-07:00

Gia wrote: Hi Tumbleweed - I am in possession of three Tony Mafia pics from my parents who owned the Whisky-A-Go-Go in the 60's. How can I find out about these paintings? Thanks.
That was the question I was asked so I asked a friend who was there when it all happened.Dale's answer: On the corner of Sunset Blvd. & Doheny Dr. near the west end of the fabled Sunset Strip, up until 1962, there was a Music Conservatory, where folks went to learn and practice dance, music, the physical arts. A fellow named Bill Gilbert bought it, 'cause he had an idea to start a nightclub which would attract neat young ladies after work, where he would give them a 'club' where they could freshen-up, come down a flight of stairs into a nightclub, making whatever kind of an 'entrance' they liked, and be served a free drink and snack food. His idea was, 'Where the chicks are, the guys will follow'. Great concept, but for a lot of reasons it didn't fly. Meanwhile, the disco rage was going in the east, with pole-dance-type chicks gyrating in cages, so Elmer Valentine, who owned and ran the Interlude, a club on the Strip upstairs from another famous LA nightspot, the Trocadero, joined with Phil Terrazini, who owned and ran the Losers, a hot spot on La Cienega Blvd just a block down from the Strip, and they bought the failed Party (Bill Gilbert's failed club), and turned it into the Whiskey a Go-Go (known as just 'The Whiskey').

While it was the Party. Bill had hired (used?) Tony to decorate and do paintings for the club, and I don't remember why, but one day while it was just being started to be built, I wandered in, and somehow got inveigled into doing the sound system for the place. Tony and I hit it off, and one day we got to feeling pretty good, and he was looking at my almost new '61 T-Bird convertible, and asked me if I'd like my car painted. I said. 'Are you nuts?!' The paint is perfect It was a medium to light blue). He said, 'No, I mean I'll paint it'. At that time, you could still buy lacquer paints, so we went to an auto supply store, and Tony picked out about six or eight different colors (Blue, White, Green, Red, Yellow, etc.) of half-pint cans of lacquer. Then we spent the afternoon up in the upper back parking lot of what is now the Whiskey (Which was designed as where the chicks would come into the Party women's club house), and Tony painted ladies, dancing girls, horses, flowers all down both sides of my 'Bird. This was way before kids were putting daisies and doing wild paintings on vans (except, maybe, for Ken Kesey), and the car attracted a lot of attention. In fact, the first time we took it across the border, it was as if we were leading a parade down the main street of Tijuana. Back to the Whiskey: The opening act was (damn, I can see him in my mind, and hear him, but can't remember his name. A little guy, but he could sing, had several top hits, you can probably look him up), and the crowd was great, Girls were dancing in cages suspended from the ceiling, the music was rocking. guys were picking up chicks in multiples to go somewhere and ball, chicks were picking up chicks and couples, and vice versa, it was a swinging place, long before the NY scene. Funny vignette, a couple of guys I knew from Hewlett-Packard were just developing the very first home TV tape-recorder/cameras, and gave me a demo to take to the opening, which was in the after noon, and I set the camera up on the balcony overlooking the frront entrance and stage (Which at that time was right in the front corner of the building, exactly on the corner of Sunset and Doheny. A lot of Hollywood type s came to the Party with their chicks and assorted ladies, and after a while, when they noticed the camera, a bunch of them went bananas and threatened to 'Burn this F***ing place down if you don't get rid of that camera and destroy the tape'. Everyone loved Tony's paintings, and I'm pretty sure that when Gilbert sold the place to the Whiskey, he sold a few of those works, and I doubt Tony saw any of the money. At that time, Tony had an apartment above a drug store on Santa Monica Blvd, just a few blocks east of Doheny, so he could easily walk, not only to the Party/Whiskey, but also to Doug Weston's Fabled folk-music club* which was right adjacent to the corner of Santa Monica Blvd and Doheny Dr. where Tony was Master of Ceremonies for the Monday night Hootnannies, where folks like Judy Collins, the Smother Brothers, and Joan Baez, et.al, used to perform when they weren't out on the road. Good times, Thanks for bringing back the memories. Tony was poor (financially, as usual) but you did not have to feel sorry for him. One morning I came in from Vegas, and picked up a couple of bags to food to take to Tony at that Santa Monica Blvd. apartment. He usually left the place open, and I knew where he 'hid' the key, so after I knocked and he didn't answer, I walked in and started putting stuff in the fridge and cupboards. 'Hey, what's up', I heard, and turned around to see Tony's head above the back of the couch. 'Just bringing you some breakfast and other stuff', I said'. 'Cool', he said, and 'Meet Darla', as a beautiful lady's head rose up next to his from the couch. 'I know her', I answered, for in the sack with Tony, gratis I'm sure, was the most expensive hooker in Las Vegas, at the time.
* the Troubadour.

For questions about the paintings, you need to send a picture of them and we'll figure out what we can tell you about it. Post a comment with your e-mail, I reply.

Torero

2010-05-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Attila, thank you for your questions about Tony Mafia and this particular painting. From your description of the support (a kind of board with canvas on one side) for the painting I gather that he painted it in the United States. Probably in Los Angeles, California, in a period that he didn't have a real canvas and was a strugling artist without funds. It definitely is an original and a fairly early work I think, based on the way it is painted. I would say it is after his stay in Casares in Spain. The painting seems to be in good condition. That, the subject, also the size decides the value. A collector of Tony Mafia's paintings or a bullfight lover, might want to spend some money on this canvas. Bullfights were certainly a recurrent theme in his work. He loved the flamboyance and the vibrant colors, the life and death issues dealt with through beauty and ritual. I would put a 5.000 $ price for a particular sale. It may take a while however to find the person who would fall in love with the painting and willing to invest his money in Tony's work. I know for a fact that after the stay in Casares he had a show in Rue St. André des Arts in Paris with Spanish and bullfight paintings and that the show sold out. I heard it a couple of years ago from the Gallery owner Madame Besnard. So it might be a good thing for you.

Terrea Lea II

2009-10-31T10:02:00.000-07:00

Just read your post on Terrea Lea you sure did your homework. Nice. Do you remember this piece? I believe I sent it to you before with a question weather or not she could have been the subject. I think it looks very much like the only picture of her that I have seen. Only thing is the signature is spelled Tony Maffia. It's old enough that I thought it could have been done at a time when Tony was still perfecting his pen name. Note the earrings and necklace. What do you think?

I think you are right, Joe. It looks like an early piece, chalk on paper... Thanks for sharing. Tumbleweed

Terrea Lea

2009-10-24T11:07:00.000-07:00

Perhaps more than any other performer, Terrea Lea can take credit for bringing folk music to West Coast audiences. Long before Hootenanny was the order of the day she was singing folk songs and playing the then dozen available folk albums to audiences through her own radio and television shows and, as a guest artist on many top-rated programs.

More dedicated to the advancement of an art form rather than preserving one, Terrea herself is a perfect example of a fad much too exciting to be a passing fancy - of a fad that has become a permanent and glowing fixture on the musical scene. Terrea's music making, her artistry, her exciting personality and warm and contagious singing style have combined to firmly establish her in the hearts of audiences as a major and unique performer.

For over six years she has been providing the best that folk music has to offer at The Garret, in West Hollywood. On stage Opening Night at The Garret, and now more than six years later, combining extraordinary guitar work with her rich, vibrant voice, she is still capturing new listeners and keeping the old ones coming back. Thus having built a tremendous following.

Terrea hails from Liberty Landing, Missouri, the jumping off point near Independence where the wagon trains headed West, and what town name could sound more like the birthplace of one of America's great artists. It's also the place where Jesse and Frank James pulled the first daylight bank robbery, and where later Jesse James escaped from the Clay County Courthouse, in Liberty.

Born June 6th (Gemini), she's an only child, the daughter of a devoted Scotch-Irish, English and (a bit of) American Indian mother, Elizabeth, who encouraged her musical pursuits, and of her father, Everett, an electrical contractor of German descent. She was a Girl Scout and the President of her high school sorority. She won the National Music Contest for "contralto solo" in Liberty High School. And she played the flute and piccolo in the Band.

Music became her main interest when she turned to formal music training at William Jewell College. As a result of music she won a scholarship to Drake University in Iowa. Her mentors tried desperately to steer her on a classical career (obviously without success). She came to Los Angeles and appeared in light operas, films, and did a great deal of studio work, dubbing the singing voices for Larraine Day, Donna Reed, Lois Smith, and Joan Hackett, among others. And she became a fairly successful pop singer.

She was rather unhappy at this kind of work. It gave her too little gratification as a performer and artist. Shortly after reaching a degree of success as a popular singer and actress in Hollywood, her mother gave her a guitar for her birthday and it seemed Terrea's proper niche in show business was found.

It was during this time that Terrea discovered an immense satisfaction in singing folk material and started to build up a repertoire of folk songs both old and new, not as one of the defenders of the musical boredom that for so long had passed for folk music, but as a singer of folk tunes with a new approach, updated for present-day consumption. This she accomplished through tedious long hours of library and other research work. During the period when she developed this store of folk music authenticity there was next to nothing on the subject readily available as there is today. Her work was rewarded with the solid background of American lore and heritage. Today her repertoire includes more than 400 songs from all over the world.

Terrea has not just confined herself to introducing new and lovely songs to her audiences. She has also been responsible for introducing and bringing several exciting and talented performers to the attention of good-music enthusiasts.

Among the many artists she has introduced are the RCA recording stars, The Womenfolk, and The Villagers, Gale Garnett, Les Baxter's Balladeers, and others.

As Bud Dashiell, of Bud and Travis, says, "She is generally looked upon with 'special regard' by people in the field." Perhaps this explains why most of the top folk acts, when in Los Angeles, head for The Garret to catch one of her sets.

Terrea lives in a medium large white Spanish-style house on a quiet side street in Hollywood. The abode has great charm and reflects her many interests. There's a quaint fish pond in the front patio where Shane, a female German shepherd, or Andre, a male chocolate poodle, are apt to be watching the slithering goldfish.

The color scheme of the interior is blue and white with antique gold finishes, everything being set off by the magnificent Marie Antoinette chandelier in the living room. Above the black slate fireplace hangs one of Tony Mafia's lovely oil paintings. Terrea has a collection of clown paintings and her favorite is "Roy" by Vern, which hangs in the entrance to the living room, above a century old pewter coffee service. She likes comfortable furniture along the Danish, Spanish or Italian lines, and some of these pieces accent the various rooms with the air of gracious living. Her king sized bed is covered by a pale gold spread to coordinate with the orchid carpets and antique white shutters.

To relax she plays piano by the hour, reads (often voraciously devouring everything she can find about a specific historical character who's piqued her interest after seeing a particularly exciting film), or listens to semi-popular and semi-classical records, expecially piano concertos and motion picture theme music on her stereophonic tape recorder and record player. She has a large collection of albums that very from blues to opera. She doesn't like entire operas but loves to listen to the portions that please her, particularly the Puccini arias. The rest of the time, "I just sit and watch the fish", (while working diligently on more new folk songs), play chess ("I collect chessmen"), bicycling, and collecting old Greek coins to make into medallions.

She says she has no real favorites in songs and refuses to pick any favorite among the folk field. (Although she admits Harry Belafonte, who started in the folk field at the same time, is one of her favorite performers along with Bud and Travis.

Terrea drives a black Le Mans convertible with black leather upholstery and black tires because she thinks whitewalls are not conservative enough.

Terrea has a very keen sense of usually dry humor. Off stage she is warm, conservative, interested in everyone and everything. Her moments of outgoing humor are nominally part of her professional personality. She is actually shy and modest. She doesn't like being "on" and she hates to be called "Miss Lea".

She likes to cook, especially barbecued foods. And her favorite food is a New York steak. She likes casual clothes, Abano perfume, long stemmed red roses, golf, poker, Nichols and May, the funnies, Peanuts, ("and the Akron ads"). Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", Marcia Davenport's "Of Lena Geyer", and Lloyd Douglas' "The Robe", The Carmel-Monterey area, and the colour, Blue. If she ever decided to retire from music and folk-singing she thinks she would like to do so by opening a guest ranch in northern California, and "raise poodles".

Terrea also likes paintings and drawings of sad, tramp clowns, the Dodgers, refinishing furniture, puppies, Cezanne, champagne, fine woods, mugs, almond Hersheys, and the movies.

She's a real movie fan and sees most any type of film. She's not quite sold on foreign films, preferring American productions. ("Anything starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Peter O'Toole or Audrey Hepburn.")

Alcohol doesn't interest her and she smokes very little. When she wants to be sociable she lights up an Alpine. Terrea enjoys watching television but has little time for it as she works six nights a week performing for her great following at The Garret. "That leaves time for the News and 'Leave It to Beaver', I guess."

She's interested in foreign languages only because she'd like to travel but does not care to study one just to be studying. "But before I see Europe I want to see all of the United States," she says.

The famous people she's most admired are Jeanne d'Arc, Kirsten Flagstad, Chopin, Franz Liszt, Rubinstein, and Eileen Farrell.

She's never had and operation or been seriously ill or hospitalized. But she's sung frequently in Veterans' hospitals both in wards and in the theatres.

Her thinking in regards to money is that it's a wonderful necessity but "you must rule it instead of letting it rule you." If she ever got a windfall she'd "probably put it in the bank, and maybe go out and buy a new poodle."

Terrea has a twelve string guitar and two classical Rodriguez instruments. They are her most prized possessions and the last one was specially dedicated to her by Rodriguez. Her favorite guitarist is Larindo Almeda. She has been collaborating on writing songs. For many years people have asked why she hasn't written songs. Recently it came about on its own volition and she's now including some of them in her performances.

She hasn't many dislikes but what she doesn't like, she strongly doesn't like: real spicy foods, the color puce, anyone tapping on her seat in a theatre, noisy gum chewers, licorice, escargots, hats, broaches, entire operas, "Miss Lea", Communism, and Americans who are pro-communistic.

Her favorite dates are of the Grant-O'Toole type. He must be a good conversationalist, and "since I don't care for hiking in the hills", must prefer the indoors to outdoors activity. For her pleasure she likes dates that include good dining, the theatre, concerts, movies or dancing.

Terrea is a student of Unity and attends Dr. Wilson's Christ Church Unity. She often sings at the church, and to her religion is a personal, quiet matter.

About modern youth she holds a very good impression. "They're underestimated. Much corruption of youth can be contributed to lack of proper example from adults. At The Garret they are usually a better audience to perform for, as opposed to some adults. They show respect. By adults showing a positive attitude towards youth, giving them responsibility, they would undoubtedly meet it. I'm not the least bit worried about the future when the United States is put into the hands of our youth of today."

Terrea Lea's list of professional credits is extensive. In the area of television she played a year on Station KCOP with a weekly fifteen minute Terrea Lea Show, and 36 weeks on the same station with a fifteen minute daily program. For thirteen weeks she did a weekly half hour Terrea Lea Show on Station KABC, and for 26 did a five minute daily Terrea Lea Show on KNBC.

Besides her own shows she appeared as a regular on the Bill Stulla Show, and the Red Rowe Show. For a year she appeared twice weekly on the Betty White Show, and for two and a half years was a regular on each program on the Tex Williams Show.

She has appeared as a guest on "This Is Your Life", "Ding Dong School", "The Bill Bailey Show", Premiere '60, Alcoa Theatre - "Five, Six, Pick Up Sticks", Twilight Zone - "Jess Belle", The Richard Boone Show - "All the Comforts of Home", Channing - "A Rich and Famous Folksinger Like Me", The All Night Show with Joe and Betty Karbo, Lloyd Thaxton Show, Al Jarvis Show, Panorama Pacific and Educational programs on Folk Music for the Board of Education.

Most recently she has made multiple appearances on both the Saturday night Jack Barry Show, and on The Folk World of Jimmy Rogers program, singing such favorites of her audiences as "It Was a Very Good Year", "Golden Apples of the Sun", and "Julie Ann".

The Terrea Lea Show on radio played for three years on NBC for fifteen minutes twice weekly, and for a nightly half hour for a year and a half on KABC radio. It was also carried by the Armed Forces Radio network and through the years many of the servicemen who'd heard her songs while serving in far corners of the world have stopped at The Garret to her her sing to them in person. The Terrea Lea Show played for a half hour nightly for 26 weeks in the San Francisco area over Station KYA, and for 26 weeks, she did a fifteen minute program three times weekly over Station KXLA.

Also on radio, she was a regular for three years on the Tex Williams Show, and a regular on the American Barn Dance program and the Harry Babbitt Show. Guest appearances included Nightbeat, the Steve Allen Show, Suspense Theatre, NBC Theatre, the Joe Dolen Show and the CBS Lucky Strike Show.

On record she has done a series of transcriptions for Capitol Records, two sides for Coral and six sides for Intro Records. Her albums include "Terrea Lea and Her Singing Guitar" on HiFi, "Terrea Lea Folk Songs and Ballads" on ABC Paramount label, "Terrea Lea At The Garret" on Valon and "Les Baxter's Balladeers" on the Reprise label.

Terrea starred in nightclub appearances at The Hootenanny Club (with Bud and Travis), The Chi Chi in San Diego, and at Johnny Walsh's Deauville Club on the Sunset Strip, besides over six years at The Garret in West Hollywood.

She was featured in "Bewitched," starring Phyllis Thaxter and Edmund Gwynn, and a number of other motion pictures.

Her concert appearances include the Greek Theatre, the Hollywood Bowl, UCLA, Pasadena City College, about a dozen high schools in the Los Angeles area and with Jimmy Rodgers at the Imperial Valley California State Fair.

Terrea Lea's warm and contagious personality, her gracious handling of audiences, and her offering of the finest folk music available have gained her the respect and admiration of the young, the new adult, and all members of the family. She is a credit to Show Business, a consummate

My sister

2009-10-07T10:37:00.000-07:00

I have been away for some time. But anyways I am back and posting.

This painting here was painted in celebration of my sisters birth. It hung above her bed for many years and she cherishes it very much. Tony had given my sister and I a painting when we were born. My father had asked Tony to paint something with a young girl in mind, this piece was the result. I feel it is a very unique piece. Tony had painted a strange whimiscal world. That seems to stem from the day dreams that he might of had at the time of my sister. We see the unicorns flying about, with the detailed unicorn seeming to be protecting the rest ( or as I think my sister ). I adore this piece and it truly shows the connection of Tony and my Father being best friends. Enjoy.

Guitar

2009-08-16T12:08:00.000-07:00

Tony loved his guitars. All of them. He used to say that there is but one song for a specific guitar sometimes. He played also the banjo and the harmonica. This is an easy drawing, pen & ink, probably late sixties, early seventies. Hear his song...

Angels

2009-08-13T05:51:00.000-07:00

Once in a while we all needs angels. When Tony did, he just drew them or took his guitar and sang to them. This is one of the easels in the corner house in Hoboken. He had three there, all rather big. He often worked at two pieces at the same time , usually in very different styles, but with the same basic palet.

No salesperson

2009-08-09T01:08:00.000-07:00

This is little Indian panting done in Chloride for a good friend of Tony living there. The family takes good care of the work and takes pride in the work. Regularly, I am asked whether I can help with selling a painting or whether I know the venues. I am good at many things but I am definitly not a salesperson. I do not know the market situation in the US and in Europe I learned that a person will fall in love with a piece and will have to have it at any price. Those are extremely rare and far between. The others who 'like', 'adore', even 'admire' Tony's work want you to give it away for free. I spend money on keeping the collection in good shape and for moving paintings for occasional shows. I want the work to be seen and hence the blog. I am no help at selling Tony's work. I wish all of you good luck and let me know the result of your efforts. Tony was a contrarian, so he skillfully maneuvered himself out of the mainstream until he became a a cult figure for a select band of followers. He is among the great painters of last century but never was part of the established art scene.

Chloride (for Bret)

2009-08-08T00:55:00.000-07:00

Chloride would drive Tony into a frenzy. This painting is proof of that. On a dark stormy night, rain gushing down, he got 'restless', 'crazy', 'anxious'. What the feeling was that would grab hold of him at those times. He tore out a piece of boarded fence and painted these Indians, which he gave away the same night to Ken F. Some people he took to immediately, like to you Bret. Talking and listening, joking on the back porch were good and cherished moments. I too learned from you, your voice and turning on the preacher as a demonstration... I hope you are well. If you post a comment with your e-mail, I'll reply to you and then erase the comment to keep your mail private. I hope that works for you.

AUGUST 4, 1931 and now

2009-08-04T09:59:00.000-07:00

At an artist evening at our old place in Hoboken probably in 1998 this picture was taken. Today would is a good day to celebrate his life since it is his birthday... Remember him!

The horsewhisperer

2009-07-26T04:55:00.000-07:00

Tony often wrote stories and illustrated them. He was a painter first and foremost. These illustrations are done with airbrush. You have to love the horses! Tony knew horses, he rode, as a 14 year old he worked in a very famous stable. Didn't really like him since one of the horses was really ornery. I think it is an early seventies piece when many of his best stories originated.

Gentleness

2009-07-20T22:42:00.000-07:00

This gentle 1993 pen and ink drawing washed with water is done in Chloride. Tony must have been in a melancholic mood. He often was. He craved recognition as a great artist - which he is in my mind - yet never got the breakthrough other, sometimes less interesting, artists made. Doug Lyon would come and visit us in Chloride every time we were there and he would bring Jeffrey. It were good and happy times. Doug would also slip Tony some money when it was obvious we were 'impecunious and without funds'. Thanks again.

Lovers in landscape

2009-07-15T07:09:00.000-07:00

Lover in a landscape with a view on the horizon. there in the distance there seem rest and peace and the mystery on not knowing what is. Note the whimsical loose tree and the barely suggested figures. this etching is probably from the early seventies, done on the press Doug Lyons and some other friends bought for Tony. I know of three presses having been bought for Tony. The two other ones were bought in Belgium.

Place de L'Ancienne Synagogue

2009-07-14T05:49:00.000-07:00

Staying in a hotel at the Place de l'Ancienne Synagogue, I thought of some of Tony's quick scetches of people he saw in the streets. These are feltpen drawings with sure lines, probably stemming from the late sixties or very early seventies. Amsterdam or Antwerp may have inspired him to to these. He lived in Antwerp in the 'Lange Herentalse Straat', right in the Jewish orthodox quarter. He was intrigued by the hair and beard, the dress, the people...

Balle de Paris

2009-07-06T13:14:00.000-07:00

Click here to see the belle.
Cheeta Jones wrote: My mom picked this painting up from a garage sale many years ago for two dollars. The garage sale was actually in Canada in southern Ontario. Yes , I have like the painting for a long time. I only began ton research Tony's work recently and seeing his other work has made me appreciate this painting even more. I like what you have done to create a collection of his paintings and stories...

Tumbleweed: This painting has the words Balle de Paris, probably he meant Belle de Paris seen the pretty ladies ready for a bal. It stems or refers to his Paris period in the sixties when he lived ina "chambre de bonne" after staying in Hôtel Belgique for a while. He roamed the streets, sold his work in the 'grand cafe's', knew the ladies from 'Les Halles' and the galleries in Rue St André des Arts:

All is changed
nothing stays the same
but the street
on which the changing
walk
until words
of past
hurt
for lack of a tomorrow

The fading star
of laughter lost
hears but the
murmur of memory
on rue St André des Arts
meeting Madame
Françoise Besnard

Birds

2009-06-11T04:26:00.000-07:00

These birds, at first glance they seem to be pigeons; they are a lithograph. When in Paris Tony did several lithographs. Once again: no date or signature on the photograph but seen it is in the series of work from the early seventies in Los Angeles. I know Robert K. owns some of those. Do you see the lady with the red hat?

Nude oil

2009-06-10T00:41:00.000-07:00

This is a sweet pastel nude. Once again the picture isn't perfect: no signature, no date, but nice pinks around the nipples. I think it is part of a larger painting done early seventies. A lovely lady...

Love

2009-06-03T11:45:00.000-07:00

This hippie couple probably dates from the late sixties/early seventies and was more than probably painted in Los Angeles. The blond lady must have been Ann, his then wife. Flower power rules in this painting. Good message.

Fuq hate

2009-06-02T12:29:00.000-07:00

'Fuq Hate' and 'Love' in the background, I guess this qualifies as a political painting. It must still have been in the Vietnam war years. Note also the typical fish on the head. Tony used to put them in many paintings. I am not sure whether there was a Christian connotation or not. Enjoy the gentle colors and the sure lines.

Boards

2009-05-31T05:42:00.000-07:00

Sometimes Tony would paint on boards when he wouldn't have any canvas or good paper. This oil painting could well be a portrait. I don't have a date yet I am pretty sure it stems from the seventies and also that is was painted in Los Angeles

Erotica

2009-05-29T11:28:00.000-07:00

Well here is Pan and a nymph in action. As far as I can tell it is an oil from the sixties. Figurative but with hidden figures and areas of abstractions. Enjoy.

Painters at play

2009-05-26T11:51:00.000-07:00

If you look well at this painting you'll see an assortment of painters in the guise of harlequins and magi. They hold the pallet, and have each a brush tipped with a different color. They paint the spring with gentle color. I think often Tony would have liked to repaint a better, prettier world than the one he saw. Although on other days he was in the best of all possibles worlds. That is dichotomy in a fertile mind.

Music and drawings

2009-05-23T13:07:00.000-07:00

Chuck Johnson said:
After fifty years, I decided to look for Tony Mafia, and it appears as if he is deceased.
I used to talk to Tony from time to time in a coffee shop in New York. The two of us, along with a small group of other enthusiasts, used to rendezvous there to listen to Augustin de Mello, a self taught Flamenco guitarist. Augustin made an LP recording not long after that time, and I have an autographed copy of the recording. Augustin never gained much fame as a guitarist, but he did gain some notoriety as the father of the supposed genius, Adragon De Mello, who was attending college at age ten. As I recall, Morley Safer interviewed Adragon for a segment of CBS’s 60 Minutes back in the late 1980’s.
One of the members of our group was the starving Cuban artist, Arnaldo Ravelo Avellaneda who was a friend and lover of another Cuban artist, Angel Acosta Leon, who was still in Cuba at that time, before Castro’s revolution, while Batista was still President of Cuba.
In the fall of 1959, in Cafe Roue in New York City's Greenwich Village, I had a conversation with Tony about art. I was carrying a 9” x 12” pad of drawing paper, some chalks, and a marker pen and trying to sketch a girl who sat a few tables away from us. My efforts were clumsy and juvenile, and Tony said that I was trying to be too precise. He asked to borrow the pad and chalks and, in a matter of minutes, proceeded to draw the girl in a Picassoesque style that amazed me.
He then tossed off another drawing. This one was of a nude standing with an observer looking away from her, and quickly thereafter sketched a seated nude. After that, since we were listening to Spanish Flamenco music, he sketched a toreador standing in the traditional killing pose, with his sword drawn. A few minutes later, in the most detailed of his drawings that night, he sketched what appears to be a Spanish “Don.”
I don’t remember what Tony’s employment was at the time, but it was not as an artist.
He drew these five sketches in less than thirty minutes, and he made them so quickly and professionally that I asked him to sign them. I also suggested that he should become a professional artist.
Tony pooh-poohed the idea, and said that he wasn’t interested.
I had been in New York only to take courses at The New School, and when the semester was finished I left New York and returned to George Washington University.
I lost track of Tony after that, but I kept his drawings with me through many moves and corporate transfers, Puerto Rico, back to Washington, then Dallas, Chicago, and Kansas City.
I re-discovered the drawings while going through memorabilia after my wife died.
I don’t have photographs of these drawings, but, if anyone is interested in seeing them, I will arrange to have photos taken.
May 15, 2009 4:27 AM

With thanks to Chuck, Arlette's picture of Tony and 'reflexivity.com'

The pond

2009-05-15T05:57:00.000-07:00

THE POND

Morning in Hoboken. Light meets me again, the light
of long languid days at the pond near Lawrence Hall.
Oh, eight again in the orphanage of Chicago!
(My Cherokee daddy took a deadly drink of acid,
run-down by the taunting sneers about his lineage.)

All the time of the world. I and the boys never plan,
it all happens to us of itself, like one day
just being dropped here of itself. It is a tacit covenant:
misery we drown together in this secret pond
in the middle of the woods. All our senses sharp.

All gradations of green circle the glade where clouds
touch water, pink veils brought in by the wind.
I hear yesteryear’s sounds: the song of redwing and hummingbird
blending with our high voices of boys and the diving,
the breaking and splashing of water. We looking for water turtles.

Briefly eight again in the orphanage, but the screeching
of the seagulls brings me back. Winter in Hoboken.
Fog collars me now. Singularly touches me,
mutes colors and sounds. People hurry by, numbed and lost
deep in themselves. It is the restraint that strikes me here:

of the light hardly showing color, of the pigeon on the branch in the mist,
of nothing still stirring, of sound we gave a name but continues
to stutter strangely in the ears and, if at last the sun breaks through,
the shifting of shadow and light. It is my heart that is touched here.
Years and years beyond words.

Rose Vandewalle wrote this poem for the Demer Publication 'Black Sun' which you can order at Lulu. It is close to Tony's sentiments mixed with her own sensitivity. She knew Tony, owns work by him, has known the painting in my living room for a long time.

Double portrait ten years laters

2009-05-10T00:40:00.000-07:00

TOOLS OF SOLACE

Pen pallet pencil
with tools life is lived
and then the red
touched with the smallest
brush
minutes till sudden death

for the colors
gray for the polder sky
for doves up high titanium white
viridian green for trees and woods
alizarin, crimson, rose madder
for lust, blush, desire, burning fire
Naples’ yellow
for a sweater painted twice
and blue
for the hue of soul
Sienna, umber, burned earth
for desert and for sand

and for
the smell of paint &
turpentine
I was ablaze

so it is that
with scorched hand
I write -

My poem from ' Black Sun': Gedichten voor Tony Mafia / Poems for Tony Mafia (boek): 10 poets whom I thank!

Here you can read and order:

The painting obviously is a double portrait, painted not too long before May 10, 1999. It speaks of the importance of art and caring. Tony you are remembered and missed. Lets celebrate life!

Horse dance

2009-05-05T13:22:00.000-07:00

THE GENESIS OF CREATION
(The tearful eye of God)

It is always the power of the beast excelling human beings
and present in images we see with closed eyes
(sometimes blind to history). In a different place.
In the Camargue (wild horses). In dreams saved in scraps
in the head, the mind, where all eventually disappears.
But this horse that has broken free of the herd
I saw again in a man, a long time ago. He stood with his feather
headdress on a stage in Battery Park swaying his arms
screaming at 200,000 people - in the background
above him the Twin Towers emerging
as temporary gods - the eye of an invisible hurricane:
First they took our buffaloes
then our land
and what’s still left for us in territory
they build nuclear power plants!
The red stallion is the painter’s brush:
he who creates knows that this arises from what is destroyed,
he who writes knows that words have to perish
if they are to have new life.
They are like the flowers on giant cactuses, briefly blooming only.
I see a part of a painting and I see a part of what
is expressed: all Guernicas and Chattanoogas never passed.

Poem by Hannie Rouweler publisher of Black Sun. It wasn't about these horses she wrote the poem but this painting in oil hasn't been posted yet. It has been shown in Hoboken in the townhal..

Tony Dean Mafia / Black Sun

2009-05-04T06:46:00.000-07:00

TONY DEAN MAFIA
after a picture, for Annmarie Sauer

Subdued, as only death can make you,
still and in thought
so I see Tony sitting
in the sands of a white and far off past,
I who have not known him but
- ten years after his breath -
hear him talk, play music,
see him paint with colors of earth and blood
and a brush in which his heart still beats.

Tony, marked by the exhaust fumes of Chicago
and chained to the shots ringing in his name,
a James Dean with Cherokee in his veins:
the cowboy boots reminding me of
those of J.J. Jones, the Navajo who
in Monument Valley among timeless cathedrals
of red rock and whiffs of Marlboro smoke
forever passed on to me the sadness of his eyes.
Look: the galloping mummy of John Wayne !

I kneel for you Tony, and ask
- if only for a second -
to look into my eyes,
the gaze away from the white sand.
And to talk about Indians
and their trail of tears.

This poem by Willie Verhegghe is in fact made to the photograph of Tony you see when opening the blog.I added another picture, looking at the artisan guitar builder at Montellano, near Seville in Spain, who made 'The Crying Madonna' and the classical dark wooded guitar. He still looks away, but here he looks at something he enjoys. The poem is from the 'Black Sun', a publication, which you can order at Lulu.

I have seen you

2009-04-29T13:46:00.000-07:00

I have felt you in the dawn
of tomorrow
schreef hij
en alleen
de tijd
zal weten
van ’t voorbijgaan
aan en van elkaar

Tijdelijkheid vastgelegd
voor de tijd begon
scheuren toe
gespeld
bij het vertragen
van het tijdsgewricht
toen wij bleven staan

ik noemde je zon
en ik was de maan
nu
zoek ik mijn eigen licht

In the early eighties Tony gave me this painting for ten years worth of birthdays. As you can tell by the Mohawks, the stained and torn clothed and the security pins it was in the punk period. Anything visually stimulating would end up on a painting. I wrote for 'Stroom' for 'Het laatste gedicht' this poem to go with it. Thanks again Tony.

Rain/Reign

2009-04-26T00:40:00.001-07:00

It is a dark, rainy day in spring. In this flat country there are many rainy days. It changes the colors. Everything drips,all is watery. But even then there the bright red outline who reigns over the painting. There are the the far desert vistas and at least three gentle landscapes. This non linear but layered painting jumps between the different realities, different emotions. The thick cutout lines every time again isolate a separate reality, the other meaning, the other 'signifié'. The reading of Tony Mafia's painting remains open to the reader. he was a forceful man, but not an authoritarian painter. The painting was shown in Leohards Gallery

Giving the blue apple

2009-04-21T06:28:00.000-07:00

Driving trough the North of France and seeing the yellow golden fields of flowering colza (rapeseed) reminded me of a 1995 larger (200 cm by 151 cm) oil Tony painted in Hoboken after one of many trips to Strasbourg probably late April, early May. The yellow sky was how he rendered these fields reaching to the horizon. The tree on the left with the blue apples is the tree of art and the person to the right is a forefather. The female figure already has a yellow apple while Tony wanted to give her a blue one. The painting is a double portrait in happy, whole times. It is currently displayed in a small show organized by 'De Blauwe Regen' in Antwerp.

God feeding the dancer

2009-04-20T03:04:00.000-07:00

God feeding the dancer is an installation or as Tony called it an 'environmental'. The red circle in the painting is continued in a red carpet completing the circle on the floor. To the right on the carpet was a nice round fishbowl with two goldfish swimming. To the left on the floor was small a wooden board with a text :dancing a wild wind of chaos. The painting 3 meter high, two meter wide was painted in 1992 and stood in our bedroom. It is one of the paintings Tony used to play his guitar to.

Bullfight

2009-04-18T09:03:00.000-07:00

In 1969 he did this charcoal drawing. He painted there for the gallery of Françoise Besnard. That was a few years after Tony Mafia had spend several months in Casares in Andalusia. His stay there has deeply influenced his later work. We revisited Casares in the late nineties and the town was eerie to say the least. Here the human protagonists of a bullfight is shown.

The need

2009-04-17T09:52:00.000-07:00

The need to draw, to paint would suddenly grip Tony. Pen and ink, felt pens, pencil anything would do. I think it was because when the hand is drawing, it is the hand thinking and not the head. The need to draw brought relief from his inner turmoil.The top drawing was probably done '66/'67 in Amsterdam.

Peace

2009-04-12T01:12:00.000-07:00

On this Easter day, may there be a resurrection of peace. Tony did this small Chinese ink wash and drawing in the sixties... His message still holds.

The sater

2009-04-04T04:01:00.000-07:00

Tony's nephew Joe:
The painting was done in North Las Vegas 1986. I bought it from Ed Morgan (my step dad) a few years ago. He had it in a trailer that was not very tall so the top was rolled, folded over and forced to fit. That put a crease across the top and caused some damage but mostly it is in good shape.
I think it's the devil stealing a woman from that poor guy who looks like he has been hypnotized. If all's fair in love and war then I think this is a painting about Love. Sorry I'm not much of a critic when it comes to art and my thoughts. I will say this is one of those paintings that the more I looked at it the more I liked it.
Note to Joe: it is Greek mythology; Pan with the flute and a very light haired Sater to boot. It must be an idealized self-portrait of Tony... I love the wide open space of the landscape. I think it was shown in the La Brea Gallery in Las Vegas.

The Art Critic

2009-04-03T03:58:00.000-07:00

Tony Mafia didn’t like to talk about his work in a theoretical way. He also was not good at it. He disliked art critics and even more art journalists. In interviews almost all journalists preferred to talk about the man rather than about his work. They liked his work all right but were intrigued by the persona. Yet Tony often said not to put a too fine point on it: ”My work is better than I am. I just the asshole you know.” So it was through at lack of savvy, or a predilection of the person he spoke too that the narrative of Tony’s life was typified and framed as the life of the restless artist, from rags to riches and back again in no time, honest is his drive and work. Tony didn’t speak the language of critical discourse and didn’t have the words to explain why he did what he did. When, however, friends or strangers came to the house or gas station he would give a guided tour by all the work, showing the different elements, the composition, which always came from his hand and heart. He would point out colors and combinations of colors and how they work. Tony had a sense of the greatness of his work but felt he didn’t fit in the tradition of contemporary art although he considered himself part of that evolution. He was a cult painter for a small group of followers who collected and loved his work. Some viewers are troubled because they cannot discern the meaning nor the why of a painting, at least not rationally. With the heart, with feeling they would learn how to look at his work over time. With some this leads to frustration, with others to lifelong love.

One of the aspects I appreciate in TM’s work are the manifold openings into the layers of possible meanings. That way each person discovers a different painting. Yet one element almost always returns: Tony will give the viewers an opening, an escape route out of the painting, a place to rest, a silence in which to gather oneself. He is not an authoritarian painter imposing only one possible view of his work. Tony did not really plan out a painting by doing sketches or such. With one color of oil he might start out to map a canvas, yet nothing said he would follow the road on which he started out. When a piece of work became too decorative he did something to make it harder for himself and tried to do a really good painting. He was driven. Many of his old friends have testified to the fact that he needed to paint, that when he had no paper or canvas he would paint on anything: an old fence pulled out of the ground in the rain, tarps, doors, the wooden lid of a flour bin from a burned out Jewish bakery … Whatever he could lay his brush on and paint out the darkness of his soul on.

Being an outsider with tons of charisma he didn’t know how to play the field, nor how to get into the big museums. That brought sadness because Tony craved immortality for his work. He was a very visual man, but we should also remember him as a musician playing folk rock, blues, flamenco, blue grass on guitars, banjos and harmonicas. Everything he did had a rough edge, sometimes a feel of something unfinished, sometimes of a chaos that he tried to make sense of. I have work the size of a stamp and huge canvasses. He himself considered the way he dealt with composition and color as being abstract although in most of his work you will find human beings. Of most of his later work I know the history and so the canvasses become the theater on which he played out his life, sometimes our life, sometimes touching on the sacred or the secret of life and death.

Often, I would hear Tony play the guitar to his paintings. To him his best work was alive, said more than what he consciously had put in them. With Tony Mafia painting was knowledge of technique, experience and heart, a life hard lived that is condensed in his fast and intuitive brush strokes. Yes you will recognize Tony by his brush strokes.

The painting was in three shows.

The actor

2009-03-28T02:47:00.001-07:00

This 1995 oil is very dear to me. You might not know that Tony had been an actor. In his new York period he had followed classes in Method Acting with Lee Strasberg and knew quite a lot of people from the Hollywood scene, some of them loving his work. One story is worth repeating. He was in Blood Wedding of Federico Garcia Lorca. He was one of the wood choppers and the understudy for the male lead. He only once had to perorm that role and when I asked 'How did you do,' His repley was: 'I sucked!' The oth wood chopper always tried to overplay him and thus mostly their scene wasn't too good till the day that at his first replique Tony kicked the other guy hard in the scins and got him really mad. So they really looked at each other, feeling flew over the stage and they had a major applause for their performance. After that night, they always played well without any kicking...

Harlequin Painter

2009-03-25T00:19:00.000-07:00

In a gentler mood in 1999 Tony painted this harlequin painter. He saw the task of the arts as being the fools or more like the jesters at a royal court: showing and saying what one sees. Here a trapeze artist and Tony himself slightly touch the painter in a protective gesture of reassurance & support. When people called him a genius he thought that to be unfair. They load the responsibility they don't want on his shoulders to fit the image of the starving artist in a cold attic, not understood by the world. He felt that people unloaded the burden of being something great from their shoulders onto his. Note also the landscape and its far horizon and enjoy!
ps: I've tossed the yellow sweater ;-)

Nude

2009-03-22T05:46:00.000-07:00

This is a monoprint, Tony would put oil paint on glass and make one print. He liked to use the haphazard effects of chance. He cherish the problems this created to do something worthwhile with it. This lady and lecherous faun stems from 1975.

The Cocktail Party

2009-03-19T03:06:00.000-07:00

it is an early spring day, a perfect day for a garden party like this one. The party is a bit crowded to my taste but I think Tony enjoyed painting it. I like the blue of the sky and the white clouds and the forever symbolic Martini glass. A fun moment in Hoboken in 1999. It is hanging in the small show at the East Castle in Antwerp.

Hospital 2

2009-03-14T02:47:00.000-07:00

HOSPITALS

for Tony Mafia

Where lines approach each other only to diverge once more, something like
sorrow arises. The background is blue. Can stay that way. From stripes
green lines and from lines threads. The blood beats in the heart, it
beats in the women that survive and that retain the grave and the
memory. The woman watches from behind a serum stand. Visitors
coming. You are ferried along corridors, you descend through
lift shafts. Down to the final room, the heart chamber. The heart is now
opened and closed once more. Closed once more. Men bend forwards,
bend over the body and the bed. There are loud whisperings to which
no one is listening. Then they return, really and truly, from the distance,
the eyes of the one who is killed, just before he falls. You don’t forget them.
You wanted a hewn gravestone and that you got, written on
with the red of blood. The stone comes from the ravine. You’re aware of that.
A woman gives an anxious sidelong look in your direction. Distance comes close.
Your brush was fanciful, like your wildest dance. Now you dance away from her.
Stay here, I say, I say, since you already left so many years ago.
Translation:
John Irons

ZIEKENHUIZEN

voor Tony Mafia

Waar lijnen bij elkaar komen en weer uit elkaar lopen, ontstaat iets
als zorg. De achtergrond is blauw. Dat mag zo blijven. Uit strepen
groeien lijnen en uit lijnen draden. Het bloed klopt in het hart, het
klopt in de vrouwen die overleven en die het graf en de herinnering
bewaren. De vrouw kijkt van achter een serumstaander toe. Er komt
bezoek. Je wordt door gangen gereden, je gaat door liftkokers naar
beneden. Naar de laatste kamer, de hartkamer. Het hart wordt nu
geopend en weer gedicht. Weer gedicht. Mannen buigen naar voren,
ze buigen over het lichaam en het bed. Er wordt hoog gefluisterd,
er wordt niet geluisterd. Dan komen ze, echt, vanuit de verte terug,
de ogen van wie wordt gedood, net vóór hij valt. Je vergeet ze niet.
Een gehouwen grafsteen wou je en die kreeg je toch, beschreven
met het rood van bloed. De steen komt uit het ravijn. Dat weet je
goed. Een vrouw lonkt angstig in je richting. Verte komt dichtbij.
Je borstel was grillig, als je wildste dans. Nu dans je weg van haar.
Blijf hier, zeg ik, zeg ik, nu je al sinds zo veel jaren bent weggegaan.

Joris Iven

You can order 'Black Sun' at http://www.lulu.com/content/5638999

Ascension

2009-03-02T00:42:00.000-08:00

This painting has already been posted. I have a good reason though to show it again. Albert Hagenaars was inspired by this painting writing his poem for Black Sun, a tribute to Tony Mafia. Then click' het laatste nieuws ( blog)' and go to 'A tribute to Indian-American artist Tony Mafia'. This will link to Albert's poem in Dutch and English. The poem beautifully captures the multitude of facets which inspired Tony for this painting and the made the feelings and experiences his own so that they are ours when we read it.

By and by the other poems of this beautiful volume will be posted and of course you can order the book at www.lulu.com

Roadies

2009-02-25T12:47:00.001-08:00

It is hard to blog when I am on the road. Courtesy of Joe you see Tony here walking away in a small town in Germany. Tony spoke a smattering of German, enough to get by. During his Air Force days he was stationed near Munich. He got to restore murals in chapels and churches and learned the needed techniques. He kept a love for things German, also Sauerkraut and Bratwurst...

red times of some

2009-02-15T11:37:00.000-08:00

This photograph catches the essentials of this painting: the embrace and just a few words: red times of some and possessions... There is a large oil where the male figure is similar, so I would place this drawing in Veyle, Denmark late sixties, seventy... It was all love and peace in those years, no possessions... Life must have been good, yet hard.

Abstract faces

2009-02-13T15:29:00.000-08:00

The name of this painting, painted in Hoboken in 1999, should have been 'Abstract faces and dancing nudes'... It an oil with parts where the paint is almost sculpted on. Other parts of the canvas can be seen through the light wash. Explore the secrets hidden in the colors. Find the forms and tell the tales that come to you.

The artist

2009-02-12T08:41:00.000-08:00

In this picture taken in Montellano, Spain, Tony is looking at a master guitar builder making his guitar. Tony loved all the arts and was good in several of them. In May this year 10 years will have passed since his demise. A Dutch poet Hannie Rouweler took the initiative to compose a Tribute to Tony. She asked five Dutch and five Flemish poets to write a poem inspired by Tony's work, or as the case may be by Tony himself. On the link you can click and then you'll see the front and back cover and you can read a series of comments on the different poems written for this publication. Also you can order the book or download it through that website. Obviously it is a bilingual publication with a beautiful lay out and great and thoughtful poetry. I thank Hannie for the initiative, John Irons for the help with the English translations and all the poets for their honest and thoughtful, beautiful poems.

Green Indians

2009-02-11T13:46:00.000-08:00

Green Indians in the woods and water are obviously an imagined landscape, a dreamscape. Tony's brother told me that Tony identified with the West. As kids they would regularly see westerns. Also one set of grandparents was full blooded Indian. As a grown up he reflected about his identity and claimed his Indian heritage more and more. It was a recurrent theme in his life and work.

Toreador

2009-02-10T19:19:00.000-08:00

See the sword in the background? This is a continuation of the bullfight theme. I spoke to a friend of Tony Mafia who has actually seen the bullring he painted in Tijuana. It was indeed done probably late fifties and splendid and special. It was still in good shape in 81. So is doubly sad I never got to see it. There were also facades of houses in Tijuana Tony put murals on: two stories high in magnificent colors. Here it is pen and ink and probably a sixties drawing...

Bullfights

2009-02-09T09:41:00.001-08:00

This bullfight scene in an arena reminded me of something Tony told me. I am not sure when but the story goes that he painted the whole bullring of Tijuana. In Tony's rendering it seemed to be in the fifties maybe later. He had several colors of oils on his pallet, a few buckets of paint which he threw on the stuccoed wall of the bullring. The Major got angry till the moment Tony with his brushes pulled out the figures and brought the painting to live. The Major is quoted as shouting: 'Viva el maestro pintor!' I have never seen it, since when I was in Tijuana a long time ago the bullring was closed. It is probably lost by now.

The cormorant

2009-02-08T16:17:00.000-08:00

On an old found canvas, Tony painted this happy bird with a large nest egg. It was 1992. It was the silent bird we had, next to the many canaries. See the dancing, the spheres of the sky, the sand and dry grass. See the free brush strokes and know that Tony's freedom sometimes was hard won, a freedom as reckless as the joy of life of this bird.

Circushorses

2009-02-02T11:34:00.000-08:00

Keeping a promise by doing this blog about Tony's work has brought some surprises. Total strangers have send in their work, others have shared their experiences and memories. Some have given their views, either in the blog itself or in the comments. So Tony's past, which isn't my shared past, will come up once in a while. Many stories have been told by him to me and that is what I have been posting and of course, part of this is also my story about him. I hold no definite truth about Tony. He was multifaceted, like magical lantern reflecting what you projected onto him. He was all horses: an Arabian race horse, a war pony, a painted pony, an elegant circus horse or a huge Flemish Brabander, some special type of draft horse... You get to chose what horse he is to you... You get to choose the lesson's his work brings.

Three kings and goats

2009-01-31T19:37:00.000-08:00

Being in the desert and hearing the calling of my neighbor's goats I thought of this small painting Tony did in 1992. Often goats would feature in his work, sometimes kind and whimsical like here, but also as a foreboding of evil things to pass. In this oil it is obviously spring, the young goats jumping and playing, a expression of a momentarily joy of life. Painted in Antwerp.

The flag

2009-01-28T17:44:00.000-08:00

Tony was seen as many things, always as an American, also when he didn't agree with some of the war mongering that went on during his life. I would like to paraphrase Pascal Mercier: The stories that others tell about one and the stories one tells about oneself: which ones come nearer to the truth? Is it clear that it are our own ones? Is some one for oneself an authority? Or is the real question whether there is a difference between true or false? Is the soul a place of facts? Most information I pass on are the stories as told me by Tony, as I heard them. If I checked for dates or places, he would get angry. He then felt hemmed in. Some stories I tell are mine because I lived them with him, but I also lived the stories as he told them... The drawing is a monoprint with pastel and problably from 1970.

Horse country

2009-01-27T15:50:00.000-08:00

Tony often painted, drew or etched horses, usually in movement. When he hitchhiked as a 14 year old from Chicago to the San Francisco he worked for a while in a high end stable with widely known horses. The name escapes me, they recently released a movie about the horse. He rode, he has cowboyed, which he didn't care for too much. He preferred to ride mules, since he considered them smarter. Yet the lines of a pretty horse would always send his soul singing.

Las Vegas

2009-01-19T00:08:00.000-08:00

The world is his palette, wrote the journalist. Actually that is quite right. Tony Mafia would use what he saw, felt, experienced and turn that in something 'transcendental', for lack of a better word. He would turn the particular into something general, sharing his deepest and most personal experiences with the experiences of others. Of course if you read the article by clicking on it, you'll see that it deals rather with Tony's life than doing a thorough analysis of his work. And yes, he lead a rich (rich in experiences that is) and hard life.

Swinging

2009-01-16T08:26:00.000-08:00

This etching was a study for a sculpting Tony did or wanted to do a long time ago. He spoke about it as the whole sculpting resting on the girls right leg balancing in a lawn. I don't know whether it was realized in Tony's mind's eye or for the art lover who happened to fancy his work.

The pond

2009-01-09T09:27:00.001-08:00

Tony painted this small painting for himself. It are his childhood memories of Laurence hall, Indian Home for Boys, in Chicago. In that period he was still Robert Lee Alderson. It was only later that he became Tony Mafia. In summer the kids would go and be out in the woods and dive for water turtles. They would play a bit with them and then let them be. The dreamlike quality of water and fire, of togetherness is the influence of that period in his life. Of course he hated it when one or other do gooder singled him out and said: See that light one, he could almost be one of us.

Lady of Time

2009-01-04T02:36:00.001-08:00

This 1975 pen and ink drawing done in LA, reminds me of a meeting Tony had in Antwerp. An old man approached Tony, it must have been 1997, and said I knew you as a kid. Tony replied that wasn't possible since he wasn't from Antwerp. But it turned out that the old man when Tony when he was 16, having missed his ship out had shown him the town. The good parts, the bombed out parts. They had a few drinks together told each other an appropriate version of their life and went on. Tony was happy to have met this old man from another time. So now I wonder who the Lady of time was and what she reminded him of doing the drawing.

Fiesta

2008-12-31T08:03:00.000-08:00

Tony liked to party when young. Older he could start one, but not finish it. He would get tired. I guess he liked the preparations best: the house clean and bright, flowers everywhere, enough seating corners where people could retire for a while and walls full of his paintings. Then the peopple coming in and seeing the effect on them of our preparations. That moment was probably why he did it. Happy New Year, Peace, Beauty, Love and light. Tumbleweed.

October 1983

2008-12-29T11:33:00.001-08:00

You find here two newspaper clippings and the price list from the 1983 exhibition in Gallery Atrium. He had a big sculpting there that was the focal point in Café De Linde on the South side of Antwerp. then the sculpting moved to a castle in Portugal. The paintings in that time were big, reaching to the floor, being installations, often with a book added... I don't remember what or if he sold. The revues at least were great, loving Tony Mafia and his work.

Great Fish

2008-12-28T02:53:00.001-08:00

The lyrics read: Loving the great fish is the ultimate and end too Well that is true enough. Tony was an avid fisherman. He liked rivers, lakes even stocked ponds. I guess it quietened his mind concentrating on the next catch. He usually caught us a meal, but once in a while I would outfish him. This is a monoprint from 1975.

Animals

2008-12-27T04:21:00.000-08:00

This whimsical animal drawing seems to be a drawing for children: note the mouse, the monkey, the hippopotamus, the bull, the bird and the pigeon, the lion and a man with a tear in his eye.
All for the smile of a child. As far as I can tell, watercolor and oil pastel: All for your smile in yesteryear's snows.

Feltpen

2008-12-26T01:33:00.000-08:00

Sometimes Tony would run out of money, run out of materials, run out of food... Yes often he has been a starving artist. But as long as he could lay his hands on a piece of paper and a pencil or just as here on a felt pen, he would survive another day. This was 1970.

Harlequins

2008-12-25T09:40:00.000-08:00

These tender harlequins from 1993 are a pen and ink wash; gentle, slightly sad, and well executed. Tony loved the openness and space. What I love are the very expressive eyes of the two figures of course.

Christmas song

2008-12-24T01:45:00.000-08:00

A flamenco Christmas song for you all, through this 1997 oil called Spanish Lady and guitarist. Sing along, think along with the pretty lady and I hope you can enjoy the warmth of good companionship. Merry Christmas, good Hanuka, good winter Katchina dances... Whatever brings light and love.

Taurus

2008-12-14T02:06:00.000-08:00

For the Tauruses among us this whimsical, mythical beast, probably stemming from 1972 or '73. it is a monoprint finished with pastels. Tony Mafia would on a glass plate create a background, make one print then change the background and thus creating more coincidence in the backgrounds. having watched him do this often, I know there was also a lot of skill and intent.

Flyer

2008-12-08T01:09:00.001-08:00

Tony's work keeps touching people's hearts. This is the flyer for an upcoming music and poetry event, which is the end of year of a series of house concerts. And loving his work so much, a small house exhibition is also planned by the enthusiastic organizer. The improvising musicians are awesome, if you're not too far away come and join the festivities. Five instruments, one voice and a poet reading while Tony's work is projected on the wall.

part two

2008-12-07T00:22:00.001-08:00

Here too you can see the corrections and a few preliminary drawings. The final book became much longer in black and white washes and pen and ink drawings... One of these days I'll post the full Love and Loved story. You'll see that the nucleous is already present here.

Process of writing

2008-12-03T05:04:00.000-08:00

I'll be showing the first sketches and writings prefiguring what later became the story of 'Love and Loved'. A far as I can tell the corrections are Tony's . It must have been early seventies when the idea first came to him.

Seascape

2008-12-02T04:20:00.001-08:00

After a series of new and vibrant work a quiet old piece.: a pastel seascape with clouds and hidden sun. It could be a bay, even a white water river. A fast but misleading impression makes one overlook the figure in the rocky foreground and the white self portrait in the foam.

Tears and yellow jacket

2008-12-01T00:19:00.000-08:00

In this oil painting , Tony never used acrylics, a few themes come together. First of all the gallery setting, thus having paintings in a painting. Furthermore, the female figure cries. Here just as in the Tearing skull the tears are well painted, almost as if to prove he could do the precise work. The painting is from 1999. Well, I had reasons to be sad and cry and yes I had a yellow jacket. From abstract sections to reality in one painting.

Poison

2008-11-30T04:28:00.000-08:00

In 1998 there was a major flood in Antwerp and surroundings and our address having been Lageweg 431 in Hoboken we were thoroughly flooded out. Tony saved the two dogs floating on a chair after coming home from the hospital and the factory must have opened some lines which they shouldn't have. The result was a poisonous slme, sludge clearly visible after pouring out od the factory. This paper was tainted by it and Tony painted the appropriate subject on it: Poison. He cared about nature, was a fisherman and wanted the water to be clean. He wasn't the best recycler though. He also loved his cars, the excuse being his getting out of breath when walking too far. This piece was in the retrospective of Hoboken 'A brush'.

Children of a clown time

2008-11-14T03:20:00.000-08:00

This is the oldest work I have by Tony Mafia. First we knew him as a singer/busker in Antwerp. He knew how to seduce a guitar. In August 1968 we met him with his wife and young son in the market. He invited us over and we admired his drawings. That was the day of the beginning of a collection. This is a mixed medium. The text reads: The children of a clown time stand alone to remove the false, to grab at any bud or blossom, to stay his weight, some to compare and to find one or the other of a less or unfulfilled promise, still alone to sit and dream of a tomorrow spring.

Yellow sweater

2008-11-13T08:58:00.000-08:00

The yellow sweater I have worn for a long time, the skirt I still have. Sometimes Tony was very realistic even if one doesn't expect it from his wilder work. This is a '93 oil painting. I like the vanishing point in the landscape. It was a fairly good time.

Tearing skull

2008-11-08T01:40:00.000-08:00

Among the garbage in the street Tony picked up a canvas and painted this amazing piece. You will see when you click to open the picture that the faces are compositions of other figures that landscapes and humans flow together. Tony was in that time (1998) fascinated by the form of drops of water. He probably was also depressed on and off and thus tears appeared on his canvasses. Here is the combination of tenderness and sadness, tranquility and a tearing skull.

Out of step with the band

2008-11-07T13:48:00.000-08:00

Tony and I felt usually out of step, out of sync with the two worlds we were living in. I think that Obama Barack's victory would have really pleased Tony Mafia. He was a democrat at heart and a member of the party and had been at the first march between Selma en Montgomery. He told me about the German shepherds chasing the people. I wonder what he would have painted about this feeling of relief. I am sure he would feel even more patiotic now. The painting from 1997 was shown in Leonhard's and Lineart in 1998.

The moonbathers

2008-11-03T02:44:00.001-08:00

The moonbather is a 1998 large oilpaining, shown at Leonhard's Gallery in Antwerp. Enjoy the swirling night sky, the people on the beach and those in the water. See the embracing couple? See the banana moon? One of Tony's lighthearted works...

The lizard

2008-11-02T10:06:00.000-08:00

The lady with the lizard over her shoulder also holds, or is part of, an egg shaped form filled with people. I love the colors, the contrast between the straight, stark lines and the gentle flow of the figurative work. Lizards are an important symbol in Native American iconography. It represents purity. This is one of Tony Mafia's late works, but it bears no date and was painted in Hoboken.

Millenium Ball

2008-10-31T10:16:00.000-07:00

Tony Mafia didn't make it till the millennium but seemed fascinated by the turning of time. This oil painting he called millennium ball. The painting has a lot of people and some abstraction, a high bridge and a far perspective. After all it was all about futures.

2008-10-29T00:36:00.000-07:00

The peasant couple reveling in the foreground contrasting the elegance of the two dancers in the background: this could be a painting about the clash of harsh reality and art, about expectations and dreams, about love, lust and tenderness. Tony Mafia also could have just met them on the cobblestoned streets in Antwerp in 1999, came home and painted what he felt and saw. Note the abstract paintings in the background, the meeting could have been in a gallery and the art critic took the lady home...

The sheepherder

2008-10-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

This whimsical sheepherder stems from 1994. See the sheep peeking over the rim of the painting? I am partial to the abstractions of reds in the background, the half horizon and the tears the shpperd is crying. Why, one has to wonder.