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People:  Bukowski & The Beats, Mother & Child, Commissioned Work, Robert Johnson, Portraits
Places: Detroit, Junk Yards, Miscellaneous & Things: Voodoo Dolls,  Miscellaneous
BUKOWSKI MORNING
Original Watercolor 8" x 10"
$100

Henry Charles "Hank" Bukowski (1920 - 1994) is my favorite writer.  Wikipedia nails it when it notes that Bukowski's writing was heavily influenced by the geography and atmosphere of his home city of Los Angeles, and is marked by an emphasis on the ordinary lives of marginalized poor American Whites, the act of writing, alcohol, relationships with women, the drudgery of work, and horseracing.

With BUKOWSKI MORNING I was hoping to capture that hangover experience those familiar with Bukowski's work will immediately recognize.
BUKOWSKI MUG
Original Watercolor 8" x 10"
$100
'62 COMET I
Original Watercolor & Pencil 8" x 10"
$100

Bukowski often wrote about his beloved 1962 Comet.  Although he complained of not being able to turn on the headlights unless he drove it over a large bump in the road or occasions when it would only move in reverse, Bukowski shows genuine affection for the auto in his writings.

The Mercury Comet was an automobile produced by the Mercury division of the Ford Motor Company between 1960 and 1977, with the exception of the 1970 model year. 

 
KEROUAC SMOKING
Original Watercolor 8" x 10"
$150

Author, poet and painter, Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) was arguably one of the best known "Beat Poets" along side Ginsberg and Burroughs.  He is best known for the novels On The Road, The Dharma Bums and Big Sur.

Kerouac's work is often wildly philosophical and I imagine him in this painting pontificating on the themes of freedom and fireworks. 

 
BURROUGHS RAINCOAT
Original Watercolor & Pencil  8" x 20"
$400

William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) was a novelist (best known for Naked Lunch), essayist, social commentator and spoken word performer.

Burroughs's work is semi-autobiographical, drawn from his experiences as an opiate addict, a condition that marked the last fifty years of his life.

He is one of the best known "Beat Writers" along side of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.

I've always found William S. Burroughs work to be a bit creepy in an odd psychedelic way.   BURROUGHS RAINCOAT gives me the visual feeling that novels like Naked Lunch and Junky evoked in me upon first reading.

 
BUKOWSKI SMOKING
Original Watercolor 11" x 14"
$300

In the photograph on which this painting is based, a nude woman is seated on Bukowski's lap, which may account for the poet's contented countenance.
BUKOWSKI CLOSE-UP
Original Watercolor & Pencil  8" x 20"
$400

As an adolescent, Bukowski was afflicted by what doctors at the time termed Acne Vulgaris.  In the novel Ham On Rye, Bukowski recounts the horrible, noxious treatments he received under a wooden drill at the local hospital.

"I often stood in front of the mirror alone, wondering how ugly a person could get.  I would look at my face in disbelief."  Bukowski wrote.

BUKOWSKI CLOSE-UP is my attempt to capture the author's facial eruptions, his stare and the relish he seems to have come to enjoy from his scars.

 
BURROUGHS STARE
Original Watercolor & Pencil 11" x 14"
$200

With BURROUGHS'S STARE I was working to capture the surrealistic anguish that is typically coupled with the absurd humor of Burroughs's writings.
BURROUGHS PISTOLA
Original Pen & Ink 8" x 10"
$100
BEST MAN I
Original Watercolor 8" x 15"
$300

This painting is named after a line from Bukowski's poem titled A View From The Quarter, March 12, 1965.

The line reads: 

. . . your best men are drunks and your worst men are locking them up . . .

 
BUKOWSKI UPSCALE I
Original Watercolor 11" x 14"
$300

Here we have Charles Bukowski enjoying a cocktail in a more upscale bar than is his norm.  We know this is an upscale establishment as it has booths and not just the standard rickety bar stools.
GINSBERG ON CAMPUS I
Original Pen & Ink 8" x 10"
Sold - Private Collection
KEROUAC - ROCKING CHAIR I
Original Watercolor & Pencil 8" x 15"
$100
BUKOWSKI - WEAPON OF CHOICE II
Original Pen & Ink 8" x 10"
$100