More Projects For The New Year

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This first drawing was done looking from my window on the second floor at the American Hotel where I lived upstairs and tended bar downstairs at the time; on July 4th, 1976. This was one of three drawings I did that day to celebrate the Bicentennial of America. All originally done in blue ball-point pen and red india dragonsblood carmine on bleached hemp sketch paper.



The wench I lived with at the time was continually running me ragged, and sketching was my means of escape. Between the dancing girls & serving rowdy biker patrons downstairs - and the bitch I lived with upstairs, there was always a constant battle going on. Patricia was a lunatic needle-scratching drug addict, and it was all I could do to keep my eye on her. Many of the dancers were in the same boat as Pat, and I was always being accused of getting blow-jobs in the Ladies Room - but everyone knew that all the best drugs were to be found in there.

Patricia was a gorgeous blond - what a waste. We met hitch hiking, the sex was white-hot (she was built like a brick shit-house) and I thought it was kismet - until I really got to know her. Her temper & labia were constantly flaring. I'm so glad those days are over... I don't know how I ever survived all that bullshit.

Don't ever think you might handle being "involved" with a junkie - that you might help change anyone in that particular lifestyle's perspective on life... It is a deathwish. Get the hell out of Dodge while you still have some semblance of sanity. In a 'Love vs Drugs' scenario, Drugs will win out 99% of the time. Those aren't very good odds. That person has to want to change. Then there is Hope.

There's a great big fat story that goes along with all of this, but I promised not to bore my readers.
(if there are any out there - LOL)

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This next drawing is mixed media and was done to remember Bob Marley. When I heard the news of his death, I was deeply saddened, and this was my way of paying a bit of tribute to him:



I still miss Bob, and will always have great respect and affinity for the message he so proudly brought us through his music.

He died on May 11, 1981 - and this drawing was completed the next day.

"Reggae Apocalypso" (1981)
Here are the true colors: