The King and the Tortoise

"The King" pencil on paper 8x8" 1988

 "The Tortoise" pencil on paper 8x9.5" 1988

Both of these drawings imagery came out of the process of their making. The King is a wish fulfillment of my youth, the desires of ruling my kingdom which at that time was some illusion I had of being the most important and powerful artist in New York City. Little did i know that these works would never leave my studio in Hoboken. Actually at some point through a connection with a childhood friend once called Brian Salzburg and later known as Brainard Carey, I was introduced to a Richard Bolger who had a space in a clocktower in Porchester N.Y. I believe that on showing the drawings they remained inside a box that i made to contain them and there they have lived ever since. Also, at that time I was very inspired by the story thus spoke Zarathustra. It is interesting how we delude ourselves to ideas of greatness. In my mind I was a king and my tortoise and my cat were my trusted servants. I took me many years to appreciate just how smart my pets were as they turned out to be my master. A friend asked upon me recently posting 28 year old drawing if this was the same redfooted tortoise I have and love today. Sadly it is not.  The first redfoot was sunning himself outside the little red house on Block Island in a pen I had made. Some Risd students had heard i had a studio on the Island and came by to visit to see the line stripe paintings I was making at that time. I heard many years later a story that they came back when i was out and took my tortoise, this came from some other artists, It is a small world and as these creatures live for so long maybe he is still alive and will find his way back to me and he can be friends with Peekaboo.