A comment by Christopher Vipond Davies

He writes: I knew Tony back in 1965 in Paris. We played and sang together in a would be cowboy bar. I had left Britain a few months before to "find myself" and in St Tropez I had found I could make a basic living singing in the cafes. After moving north to work in the champagne harvest I gravitated to Paris. At that time, I didn't have a large repertoire and probably wasn't so good, especially at handling people who requested songs I didn't know. The boss like Tony but had reservations about me, but Tony insisted we were a pair. "I’m Just a Country Boy" - Music by Fred Brooks, Lyrics by Marshall Barer - written for Harry Belafonte and now associated most with Don Williams was a favourite song of his, he played in with a rising chord sequence. He wanted to go to Spain, I wasn't sure, and we parted, shortly later I went to Italy. I've always remembered him, also his great art, in those days I remember mainly ink drawings with colour was, a very immediate impression of a moment a place. I was very sad when I Googled him some time ago to find he'd passed on, but happy to find him so comprehensively remembered. I was reminded of him again last Saturday: I was singing n the street in Amsterdam, where I live, not far from the Rembrandthuis and an artist stopped to chat, and mentioned he'd known Deroll Adams who I read had known Tony, and all the memories came flooding back. Am working on finishing a song about him, based on Country Boy, wanna sing it on Tuesday at a meeting celebrating the UN Day of Friendship.

Thank you Christopher for this nice testimony.

Spain-Espania

Tony was in love with Spain.
He resonated with the vibrations of the duende of the flamenco.
He felt the sorrow of the civil war in his heart.
The bloody rain in this masterpiece is a witness of this sentiment.

Yet there us a sheepherder  with a staff, in Andalousia. Maybe it was also about caring. Dreaming about a kind woman. Missing Spain.
He lived for half a year in Casares, Andalusia. A strange town, where the three witches in black still brew their potions...

Antwerpen 1987

Music and drawings

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'

Bullfight

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 artist

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.

Torero's in love

Two charcoal drawing, obviously not on the same material and at the same time, showing two toreadors and their loved one. Strength, sadness and gentleness are in these drawings. He would in differnt ways return to the bullfights. it was probably the dance of life and death and the esthetics of eros and thanatos that drew him.

Galerie Françoise Besnard

This exhibition was held in 1966 after spending time in Casares and bringing down the work he had created there. We met Madame Besnard one day in Paris while Tony was showing me the old galleries where he showed. Listening to the two of them speak it was clear that Tony's story that they sold out the show was true. She said: We did well then. I still have two of your paintings in my living room. All the stories told me and having been able to check out a few of them, makes me think that all he told was a always a nice story, yet always based on some truth.

The Golden Age of a Master

I titled this the golden age of a master as this painting is one of his most detailed paintings, every person in the back round has a distinct face. I love this piece out of my father collection.

Over the years my own connections to the paintings that hang in my house have grown. The more I look back on the fact that I had a well received artist as an almost second father, the more I come to realize the effect he has had on me. We take for granted many times the impact other people hold on our lives. I realize this now in the wake of Tony’s absence from mine. Growing up around Tony’s art and life has educated me in ways that I can only know just begin to understand. There was a time when I helped Tony in one of his drawings, now I am no great painter, but he still encouraged me to be creative. In recent years I have picked up poetry, which I feel is my way of painting a picture. But only now can I grasp that Tony was the one who encouraged me to go there. No other person had ever advocated creativity like him. No as my sheen eyes gaze upon his fingerprints, left for the world to see, I understand.
As I have looked back on my poetry, I realize that Tony’s life is buried under the words of my pen. In a poem I wrote titled “Heaven” a portion of my poem states, “An evangelic face shines, illuminating more than the moon / Fitting the furnace in my arms, my heart is reborn / Like a flower in bloom, I open to the heavens / Mouth strewn open, collecting the demon rum of the gods.” These words came from my heart and Tony had always told me to use my heart in everything I do. When I look back on this certain poem I come to realize that Tony is embedded in its words, just like he is embedded in my heart. If he could look at this poem from his own perspective today, I believe he would think that it’s about him. As I have learned from Tony, its up to the viewers to make their own choice about what a certain piece of art is about. Tony’s belief that everything had a story has carried into me when I write my poems. Tony passion will always be in my heart.

On the road again

When we would travel, Tony used to sing 'On the road again, ... making music with my friends'. This picture was made in Seville, Spain, putting on new strings. Music was part of his life and he painted many guitar players. A fast little drawing is shown here. The guitar is a delicate very light flamenco guitar, made in Montellano in the south of Spain. Posting will be erratic for a while, since I will be on the road... like a band of gypsy's going down the highway...

Casares Spain

Doug, our collecting fiend, had the foresights years ago to take a lot of pictures. He send 13 cd-roms on which he had transfered the negatives of those times. You'll get a lot of young Tony's work. I start out with a fine pen and ink drawing from 1966. The oldest drawing I have found up to now. He stayed for six months in Casares in Andalucia, Spain painting drawing and putting a show together in the rue Saint Honoré des Arts for the gallery of Madame Besnard. Casares is like on the drawing: the church on top with the cemetery around it and the field fertilized by the rains under the overhanging cliff... He sold out the show: true! I heard Tony and Madame Besnard speak about in when they met again in Paris early 1990's. She had two paintings of Tony in her living room... He revisited Casares often in his paintings. Even the big painting in the European Parliament 'The tearful eye of god' is inspired by his stay in Spain that long ago.