Three kings and goats

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.