Double piece

Sing a feeling among the players is the title of this double piece of about 160 cm wide 108 cm high: two pieces of German etching paper. Tony's mam had been a very pretty lady, she had worked as a chorus girl and a dancer in Las Vegas, in the Old Pioneer, in the Thunderbird among others. They had a few good nights on the town together when he was younger. The lyrics around the drawing reads...... a memory I feel the mothering of the often painted mask of beauty hung, lirics of the night at the ever crowd of morning, evenings, night alone in dance. He painted this salute to his mother on October 22 1989. Of course the singer is kind of Tony himself with his favorite guitar, bought for him by Dale R., a long time friend.

Old paintings

Old paintings is from 1989. Since he used the theme of an apple and a butterfly in some writing , I guess that is why he called it old painting. He might have found it in a stack and finished it... The lyrics around the painting say: It is brave a butterfly cann be happy in love with an apple and both of you I love... In the selfportrait Tony wrote about himself: I wait for my apple to hide in and will fall in love with a butterfly.

Geese in flight

Sing the song a goose and red lips that say something in a space of nothing... Also September 1989. It must have been a sad song that was being sung.

September 4rd 1989: what was going on? A pretty lady, geese with open beaks and one goose almost mounting her, like in Leda and the swan from Greek Mythology... I don't know where he did this painting, in his Las Vegas period would be a safe bet.

And came a king

This lovely drawing was painted in Chloride, Arizona in 1990. The left corner is a selfportrait and in that period a lady called Gina would come by once in a while. Maybe it was after one of these visits that he felt like a king... Who knows. Fact is that during a period he did a lot of blue paintings. Hue Webb a sculptor did make the comment later to me that Tony did only blue paintings. My guess is that he had run out of other colors. It had happened before in his life.

To Love

This 1991 painting hangs in my room along with another tony piece. Note the old frame that this piece is set in. As I remember, granted I was much younger than I am now, Tony was one that would take an old frame and paint over it, then set one of his pieces in it. The Words LA FOU are written in the left corner. I assume that is where it was painted but I could be wrong. I love this piece of artwork as every time I look at it I find some thing else. For example the word LOVE certainly is visible to your eyes, but it took me some time to see just to the left of it there was another word TO. This is another from my fathers collection.

The poet adds: Sometimes when Tony did something really crazy in his mind, like this graffiti like painting, he would sign as Pierrot Le Fou. Pierrot being the circus figure and Le Fou being the fool. I remember a few landscapes signed that way. Of course he wrote la Fou since he didn't write French. The painting was done in 1991, in Chloride during my first stay. I am happy it has a good home.

In the days at the Troubadour

My fathers first tony piece was given to him when, one day my father was hanging out with Tony in his Santa Monica Blvd apartment when Tony started drawing a Troubadour type guy, holding a guitar(above). When he finished he gave to the artwork to my father. It was his first Tony Mafia and he still has it. It shines in our living room, reflecting all the beautiful memories that my dad has of Tony. This was a not a typical piece of Tony in his days on Santa Monica Blvd. It was airy with calm colors, unlike his typical vibrant ones. Later in life my father showed it to Tony, and Tony commented that he didn't ever remember using those blues in the painting in any of his early works.

In my small world

This 1989 drawing is from a period in which a lot of drawings that are very blue. A mood or just lack of choice of colors? The text is just barely readable: .... Black sun has arrizen over a field of fantasy as lines off the moon off the moon as ... a memory of last night a dream I could not find. Virgins and lovemaking and the unicorn, it is all here, the whole mythology, the whole longing for love fulfilled. The man in the background seems to be a selfportrait. I hope he found what he was looking for. Gina, Twyla, maybe Veronica...

Selfportrait

A selfportrait with different loves from June 1989. Note the long mane, the big palet, the different paintings. This was the earliest time I noticed the paintings in a drawing. He is younger than in the picture at work taken in August 1998 by D.L. who owns the drawing. I can't quite read the text... Walking down the ... street I.... the paint flow in the rain and danced to the special ... of rage ... Who can tell us more ?

Elephant

A giraffe and an elephant all decked out and in a circus setting ideal for a child's room without being childish: happy and easy going, a balloon for the dentists daughter...

Unremembered

I came by the pyramidic light to a masked sigh, a song by an open door to the pace of a drumbeat I forgot and on a wind move laying back I move to unremembered, that is the message on this painting of June 4 1989. The Luxor in Las Vegas might well have inspired the pyramids in the painting... Masks and harlequins, yes it must be a DL painting. Note the baby in the woman's arms.

Care

1989, seemingly in a sad lonely stretch of life. The text reads: Some alone in the of a time I am needing a caring but can their world come to every man who needs or can only a cold be a forever Here longing and need is expressed in gentle colors. Tony's writing on his work was a feature that often came back. You'll see more of that in later posts.

In the window they are

A series of paintings owned by DL will be shown here, put in the window so to speak. I thank him for this opportunity. This is a 1989 drawing, with the Arizona landscape in the background, an angry dog and indeed people looking in. This might be a Las Vegas painting when he still was in the La Brea Gallery or briefly after that. I seem to remember DL gave Tony a Shell gas card. So Tony was always mobile and could get milk and stuff at the gas stations...

Technique

I visited an overview of the work of Jan Cox. I learned a lot. The show was well put together, and looking at the work I saw why Tony Mafia liked the man and his work. Their way of handling paint, loading the brush is similar. The strange distorted yet often pretty figures, the outlines, sometimes the composition of a canvas shows that these painters are kindred spirits. They were both tormented artists suffering of depression. This whimsical drawing is Dress in Blue.

The Chapel

It is time for some religion. This drawing (watercolor? oil?) which Tony named the Chaple -remember he was dyslexic- was send by Spooky who found it on the net for sale. Tony regularly did religious drawings, called himself catholic, wanted a catholic funeral but doubted the existence of God as told. But being sick and often near to dying he needed someone to bargain with. This pretty drawing is from 1971 and I am pretty sure that it is in the States. Who knows more about it?

Lines

On the same theme of nudeness: this 1985 piece is called Lines for obvious reasons, horizontal and vertical lines. The figures are there but they are near abstractions. Spooky on the post 'Romance' noted that the composition of that particular drawing was close to a Rubens painting 'Suzanna and the elders'.
Tony knew Rubens' work since he visited his house in Antwerp, the churches where his work was and the museums. He applied the broad brush technique Rubens used and I guess that good compositions are of all times. Yet Tony did what he wanted to do so you have had a series of nudes from the pencil pusher to this light one, so you could see the wide range and differences in how Tony treated a theme.

Inferno

In this 1983 piece Tony shows pretty ladies and that making love can be hellish. He called this mixed medium Inferno. I guess it all became too much sex and not enough love... Who knows. 1983 wasn't the bes period of his life.

Romance

The last post about bullfighting wasn't really very Political Correct, but then Tony never was. Here he is sensuous, romantic, gentle. The drawing consists of four pieces of of German etching paper put together so that the size would fit his mood. Note the two harlequins behind the naked lady.

Spain

Tony loved Spain, all aspects of it Flamenco, the country side and the bullfights. The colors of the costume and the high octane drama was probably what drew him to portray again and again the bulls, matadors and toreadors. You'll note the costumes are right. He knew because he went with Betty Ford a matadora for a while. They lived in Mexico for a while where she was touring. He left her when she turned out to be 'braver' than he was when one night in Mexico city some bandits burgled their house and she went after them with her sword. From the dentists collection. Sad eyes are a specialty of Tony...