Painting the dance

This too is older work: 1974. Tony returned often to the theme of dance since it gave him a freedom in movement and costume. Here it is rather abstract or iconic. Interestingly there is the paintbrush on the right hand side... This is a self-referential detail so we know who looked and painted: Tony Mafia.

Portraits

Tony used to portray the people around him, sometimes iconographic or realistic like here Ann, a young Danish girl when she became his 4th wife after meeting her in Paris after his stint in a Danish jail. He was married 5 times, but then such were the times when he was young and such was the man...

Townfolks

This is also part of the mural I showed yesterday. The mural was painted over because ony chose to portray the people that were down and out, the little kid he liked. The new owners of the Tennessee were going to have it restored, but I am afraid they fell on hard times and nothing is going to happen at leat for now. It is sad to know of beauty lost.

Murals in the Tennesse saloon

Tony used to do a lot of mural: cantinas in Mexico, chapels, homes, schools, even the University of Latin America accross the street of Diego Rivera...
This was was in Chloride and painted over when the Saloon changed ownership. The old Timers still mourn the loss of the at least 10/12 Meter long mural depicting the town and its in habitants.

Prison

Life never seems to have been easy for Tony. In 1965 he got stranded in Denmark on route to Sweden where his agent was iring him some money for work he had send him. In a park in Copenhagen he did a drawing. Somebody admired it, Tony sold it and got busted for 'selling a drawing without a licence and having insufficient funds. He was in Jail for six month, in solitary confinement. I guess he gave his opinion a bit loudly about the situation. When he finally appeared they gave him a fine which obviously he could. So they allowed him to sell his beautiful old banjo to the guard who had coveted it from the moment he laid eyes on it... He said this drawing he smuggled out of the prison. he went straight to Paris where he met his later wife.

AUGUST 4, 1931

Tony Mafia was born on August 4 in 1931 in Chicago, this is the oldest picture I could find. He considered himself a westerner however. That was the lifestyle he choose, that is where his family lived. Let us celebrate his life and work with all the good and the bad. He was as fallible as any human being... and gave what he had to give. He had a hard but interesting life.

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.