When Tony was eight years old at Lawrence Hall Indian Home for Boys, he was tested and turned out to be gifted as a painter. It had been forever his dream to be exactly that. Nello, the sad hero of The Dog of Flanders, spoke to his imagination. This painting is almost an illustration of the story but expresses more than that, warmth and loyalty, the dream of beauty... Actually love and death is its real theme. If you happen to be in Antwerp, take tram 4 or 2 to Hoboken and check out the City Info center in Kapellestraat, office hours only, they have brochures to hand out to you.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Nello's dream
When Tony was eight years old at Lawrence Hall Indian Home for Boys, he was tested and turned out to be gifted as a painter. It had been forever his dream to be exactly that. Nello, the sad hero of The Dog of Flanders, spoke to his imagination. This painting is almost an illustration of the story but expresses more than that, warmth and loyalty, the dream of beauty... Actually love and death is its real theme. If you happen to be in Antwerp, take tram 4 or 2 to Hoboken and check out the City Info center in Kapellestraat, office hours only, they have brochures to hand out to you.
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Lawrence Hall orphanage for boys was Episcopalian and was founded in the 1800 hundreds in chicago for homeless boys. Tony's mother placed her 2 oldest boys there. It was depression in Chicago. She kept her youngest boy with her and placed Tony's sister in an orphanage for girls. She then proceeded to move to San Francisco with her new husband, Mario Mafia. She left her 2 boys and 1 girl behind. When Tony ran away from orphanage at the age of 14 because he was being abused he hitchhiked to San Francisco to find his mother. He did find her and Mario Mafia insisted of giving him his surname, hence his last name. His real last name was Alderson and it was till the day he died.
The orphanage was never an Indian school. Tony's mother thought as most white people did at the time that being Indian was very shameful.
It was one of many of Tony's fantasies.I guess that was what made him such a great painter . However, he never took responsibility for his wonderful children. It is frightening that people find it romantic when he was so very selfish in his personal life. Art was everything for Tony, his many wives and children second. They were all abandoned left to fend for themselves. Tony brought such agony to his children. Tony had 4 children: Michelle, Toni, and mine, Soeren and Rikke.
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