Two days ago we had an Open Studio event at the Jersey Shore Art Center, and despite the gray weather, we had a decent turnout. Although a lot of people have said that it was lighter than usual, I had 48 visitors in 4.5 hours, which is as good as I have ever had. Says something about the power of promotion. Tell visitors that there are artists in the basement and they actually go down there. Hope they remember this next time. Of course, that meant I had to have something to work on, both to keep myself busy during the hours I was there in my space, and to demonstrate what I do to whoever makes it down there. I had brought the last project to a level of completion, so that meant starting something new.
The easiest thing to do in a case like this is to continue an established series. I didn't have another boardwalk piece idea ready to go, so I decided to do another Robert Johnson print. The show in Nashville may be off, but I've now shown work from this series in four shows, and response has been positive, with a few sales. At the time I started these, I wrote down lyrics to several songs. I had firm ideas for the first three, and did those. I had more ideas, including one that developed after I had done the first three, and did three more. I went through my list of potential lyrics again, and decided I at least had ideas for three more. I don't know if all will work out, so I went with one I was closest on, Kind Hearted Woman Blues.
The line I chose was from the song's bridge- "You break my heart when you call me mister so and so's name." When I first started this series a few years ago, I didn't have an immediate visual, so I set it aside for a while, but now I needed something and gave it some more thought. No man wants a woman to confuse him with some other guy, and arguably the worst time for this is during or immediately after sex. I have no doubt this is what Johnson was thinking of when he wrote it. Still not knowing where these things may be exhibited, I decided the safest thing would be to go with the latter. Looking back through past charcoal and pencil drawing I have done, I came up with a female laying down in bed, with a man walking past, dressed and covering anything possibly objectionable on her. For the woman I found something I had done before that I could reuse for this, a charcoal drawing done in the figure group I used to participate in at JSAC. The model was reclining on the floor, head maybe slightly tilted back- exactly what I needed. For her partner I figured I would just make up something, as I have done for some other figures in this series. I set the idea aside for a little while to work on some other things.
Then a few weeks before I would be cutting it, I saw something on tv that might just do. There's a Bugs Bunny short from 1947 called "Slick Hare", which is about a fictitious Los Angeles expensive restaurant and night club (The Mocrumbo, with dinner $600.00, but only a slight down payment, a no co-signer necessary) Set in L.A. naturally a lot of the clientele were Hollywood stars, the sort of cartoon Warner Brothers had produced in the past. Considering the size and cost of the restaurant, it is a surprise that they only had a single staff member, Elmer Fudd, who was both the only cook in the kitchen and the only waiter for all the tables. A customer calls him over, and it's Humphrey Bogart, who played a lot of criminals and detectives in Warner Bros movies and I guess had a reputation as a tough guy, which he backs up by pulling out a large Tommy gun and dropping it on top of his table. He wants an order of fried rabbit, and he wants it quick, or else...

Poor Elmer searches the kitchen in vain for a rabbit, but luckily, the restaurant has recently gotten a crate of carrots, and once again Bugs's love for such things has put him in an unfortunate place, and Elmer is determined to satisfy his customer. (by the way, I have had fried rabbit a few times, and it isn't bad, but if I was going to such an expensive and fancy restaurant, I'd order something better) Bugs has no desire to be eaten, and uses interaction with other celebrities (I recognize Ray Milland, Frank Sinatra, Carmen Miranda. the Marx Brothers, among others) to avoid butchering for a while, but eventually Bogey comes into the kitchen looking for the fried rabbit. Elmer can't help him and fears the worst, but it turns out his customer had a reason for his demand (I won't spoil it here) and is willing to settle for something else.

One thing I like about the cartoon, was that Bogart often had his head down, which seemed a good pose for my depressed guy (and kind of necessary when talking to Fudd, who is maybe 4 foot tall at best) plus was drawn as a naturalistic adult male, and I did a few sketches. However, he is dressed in a black suit and wears a bowtie, which might make sense for this fancy restaurant, but not for this character I imagined for my print.
But then I remembered something else I had on my DVR, a classic Bogart movie ("The Big Sleep") where he plays a private detective who goes to visit a potential client, an old man who lives in a green house and tends his orchids, an excuse to sit in hot and moist conditions he needs now. He enjoys watching the detective drink whiskey and smoke (more things his frail health won't allow him to do) as he hires him to get rid of someone demanding money for one of his daughter's indiscretions. What worked for me was that old man gave Bogart permission to take off his jacket and tie in the heat (and he rolled up his sleeves) perfect for what I wanted. And the old man was in a wheelchair, so Bogart had to look down at him. I froze frame a few good poses, and did some sketches.
I had brought the block home after sawing it loose, and a few days before the event I started the drawing. That included a frame the right size for the image, and lines for the lyrics. These were roughed in first, then later redrawn and properly lettered for the final version. I cut out the margins and the first line of lyrics at the Open Studio. then brought the block home to make some adjustments to the drawings, including studying them in a mirror. I learned as a painter that faces and bodies that look fine often aren't when looked at in a mirror, and these figures will be seen in reverse, after cutting and printing. That means now is the time to check, before I cut anything. As it turned out, the figures were mostly fine, except I wasn't happy with the one hand I had for the male (the one facing toward us, with the other I guess hidden behind him) so I redrew those from my sketches. They aren't great now, but much better than they were.
Back to the Studio today, and no Molly (in an email she said she was still feeling ill and wouldn't be in today) so I was listening to music. I started with a home burned disc, a copy of an early album by Southern Culture on the Skids, coupled with some favorites from the Chickasaw Mudd Puppies to fill up the disc (and written about back on November of 2019). When that ended I continued the country theme with another home burned disc, favorites from an anthology album from Townes Van Zandt, previously written about back on October of 2019 if you want to know more. By this point I had done most of the two figures, and decided to save the rest of the bed and wall for future visits. Results of two days' cutting can be seen below:
Cleaned up and went home. I'll continue the cutting in a few days. By the way, both figures combine pieces of two drawings to make each. I think it worked out.