Bob Boze Bell Art Blog

April 29, 2009
Two days ago I utilized for my six sketches various scenes from the French comic book of “The Wonderful Country”:

That’s Robert Mitchum talking to Mickey Free (top, left), although he probably looks a tad more like the person who drew it (artist pitfall #33). The next day, yesterday, I tried to flesh out one of the faces from the comic and find a reduced level of realism, all starting with the red dude at the bottom:

Not sure I succeeded. But, then, this is The Failure Express! That’s why I really bailed into today’s sketches with the ferver of a professional failure (Yes, I turned pro many years ago.):

I think the quickly rendered dust storm (middle, left) is stronger than the one I posted earlier, and which I spent several hours on. Sigh.

Gee, I wonder what the host of Standup Nation thinks about all this?

“I feel like I’m this piece of s— at the center of the universe. it’s a paradox: You’re so s—-y you ruin everything, but you think you’re so important you actually are to blame.”
—Greg Giraldo, host of Comedy Central’s Standup Nation, quoted in the Psychology Today magazine article on Failure

April 29, 2009
I have long been an advocate for failure, probably because I seem to be so very good at it. When I woke up this morning, Kathy brought me half a banana and a cup of coffee and asked me if I wanted her to read from an article in Psychology Today while I woke up.

Normally, I don’t, but to humor her, I said, “Sure, what’cha got?”

“All a writer really needs are the self-knowledge to decipher his feelings, the judgement to recognize the original ones, and the courage to make them public.”

That woke me right up. I’m always looking for clues at the scene of the crime (my never-ending failure to complete the assignment). The quote is from a guy who couldn’t read until he was 11 and when he told his teachers he wanted to be a writer, they laughed at him, because, as he put it, “it was funny to hear from someone who hated to read and couldn’t write a simple English sentence.”

Philip Shultz is the name of the former kid, and he claims his punishment of being in the “dummy class” and the “loneliness of having so little expected of me, and the pain of being overlooked and forgotten,” was exactly what he needed to become, in his case, a damn fine poet.

“Learning is error driven,” Kathy read to me, as I sat up straight and put my hands under my chin like a puppy begging for more. Go on. “A broken marriage, disapproval from her parents, poverty that bordered on homelessness. . .’Failure stripped away everything essential,’ [J.K. Rowling] said. “it taught me things about myself I could have learned no other way.”

J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling. Yes, didn’t she write some semi-successful children’s book about some Potter kid?

“‘I have failed over and over and over again, and that is why I succeed,’ said Michael Jordan—as did Oprah, Walt Disney, Henry Ford, Winston Churchill and Thomas Edison, in slightly different words.”

“Bubble wrapping kids to shield them from failing does them no favors.”

“We should hope, then, for exposure to failure, early and often.”

“How can we learn, as Samuel Beckett put, to ‘fail better’?”

“‘Failing better’ boils down to three things. It’s a matter of controlling our emotions, adjusting our thinking, and recalibrating our beliefs about ourselves and what we can do in the world.”

As a result of this bedside reading, I sprang out of bed and made a vow to fail today like I’ve never failed before.

Art to follow.

“Everyone thinks they’re a failure. The only people who don’t are the ones who really are.”
—Philip Schultz

April 28, 2009
Went up to a small business breakfast meeting this morning at Sonora Grill in Carefree. Lots of local business people (like “Pepper The Schlepper!” from Pepper’s Private Car Service), who told everyone when he was introduced, “I’m offering a free weekend in Mexico City. Sorry, but face masks are extra.”

You’ve got to love that small town humor. Or, maybe not. But, I do.

The whole deal was set up by Rex Wood (who invited me) and Crystal McNutt. We listened to a phone interview with pro football hall of famer Fran Tarkenton and the head of the Columbus State University Business School, Tim Mascot, and they both gave us a pep talk. “There are plenty of opportunities for nimble business people. Get back to basics. Send hand written notes. Call all of your past, present and current customers and reconnect.”

I guess Fran does these small business phone deals every month, and he is hooked up to small business meetings like this all over the country. With iPhones it seems like a telephone presentation without video might be old hat, but I imagine the technology is going to catch up soon.

After the phone presentation we had a raffle drawing and I won two prizes: a dinner for two at El Encanto and a set of wine glasses, so that paid for the breakfast right there.

Got into the office at nine and went right into an editorial image review. Abby, Robert Ray, Meghan and Ashley and myself went through a whole slew of articles looking at available art and debated about what were the best and worst and, or, what would be better. Got some good ideas and traded up in several situations.

Always fun. I love this part of the job.

Joyce and Marv Kaiser called and invited me to lunch. Took me up to Carefree to a new place, Cafe Bink, which is an offshoot of the four-star Cave Creek restaurant Binkley’s. Sat outside. Beautiful day. Talked about architects (they are building a new house north of Prescott, totally green), cancer (Joyce beat hers) and The Top Secret Writer’s poor health. Had the turkey sando and salad. Marv bought.

Went home after lunch and whipped out a study. Not exactly sure what it means:

I guess it’s a dream: A lone girl is facing her fears, either a pained rodent, or an angry buffalo.

Your call.

Our business is doing good. Some big time magazines are off 63% in ad sales, but we are holding our own. Thanks to our hardworking staff, especially Trish, Sue, Michelle and Sheri! They are on the front lines in terms of sales.

“Almost nothing works the first time it’s attempted. Just because what you’re doing does not seem to be working, doesn’t mean it won’t work. It just means that it might not work the way you’re doing it. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and you wouldn’t have an opportunity.”
—Bob Parsons, , CEO of Go Daddy

April 27, 2009
Went home for lunch to work on a couple Storm Rider studies:

Had good cloud reference but kind of tubed this one. The next one was inspired by a photograph in Cowboys & Indians magazine (on how to take photographs ironically):

Also worked over the weekend on canyon scenes with a certain mule-headed mule rider:

I keep trying and trying, and I wonder sometimes if I’m getting where I need to be. Gee, I wonder what ol’ Sam Butler has to say about all this?

“There are two great rules in life, the one general and the other particular. The first is that everyone can, in the end, get what he wants if he only tries. This is the general rule. The particular rule is that every individual is more or less an exception to the general rule.”
—Samuel Butler

April 27, 2009
Worked over the weekend on studies for the insides of an Arizona dust storm. The assignment: what the heck would it look like to be inside of one:

Almost too much clarity of forms, but I do like the billowinig, happy accidents. Here’s another take with troopers being swallowed up by oncoming dust:

I’m going to add a line of cavalry in the foreground so that we see the first riders getting swallowed up and then more detail as we come forward.

Here are a series of sketches, done from photos by Ty Holland:

It’s a fun assignment and I hope to have more finished things to show by the end of this week.

“The ablest man I ever met is the man you think you are.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (sure wish Teddy said that)

April 27, 2009
File this one under:

If You Saw It In A Movie You Wouldn’t Believe It
Most weeks I submit a Plugged In commentary in the Arizona Republic. My editor there is Ken Western. I know what you’re thinkin’: If you were watching a movie about a guy who is an Old West nut and his editor at the local paper was named Western, well, wouldn’t you roll your eyes? Like the editor would have such a CONVENIENT name!

Well, he does. Ken emailed me last week and asked me to comment on the fact that the four corners monument, where Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico collide, is, well, quite a bit off the mark (the first reports claimed it is two and a half miles off, but later reports reduced it to 1,800 feet).

When I was in high school and college I worked during the summer on survey crews. I worked on I-40 from Blake Ranch turnoff to Round Valley, pounded in a ton of property corner pins in Golden Valley, especially in So-Hi Estates, Prescott Golf And Country Club in Prescott Valley, and I even did a stretch at Metro Center in Phoenix. I say this as a warning to anyone who has property in these areas. It might be worth hiring a modern crew to check your property corners. Why?

Here’s the copy I submitted:

Four Corners Wing Ding Close Enough For Government Work

Having been a surveyor in my youth (rear chainman, 1963-1970) I am not surprised that the monument at Four Corners is more than two miles off the mark. Frankly—and speaking for all the oldtime Arizona surveyors—I’m plumb surprised they got that monument as close as they did.

You see, in the old days all we had to establish property corners, highway angles and state boundaries was a transit, a chain (picture a 200 foot tape measure, only made out of metal), a couple plumb-bobs and a brush hook (a peculiar looking axe with a hooked end to destroy native plants that got in the way). Because of these crude instruments we also resorted to a lot of “wing-dinging.” A wing ding is when you stand on a semi-precise geographical point, throw your arms out to the sides, then slam your palms together and wherever your joined palms point to, that’s going to be the route to take, or, in this case, where four states meet.

Besides the crude instruments, surveyors in my day had one other problem to contend with: they were drunk. I’m not saying all surveyors had a drinking problem, just the ones I knew personally.

If you don’t believe me take a look at the bottom of our state. See that wing-dinged-catty-wampus angle down there? My sources (other surveyors) have confided to me that after the Treaty of Hidalgo a group of surveyors were supposed to map out the new boundary and were given explicit instructions to go straight west from New Mexico and hit the Gulf of California, thus insuring that Arizona would have a bonafide sea port. Unfortunately when the surveyors got to Nogales they heard there was a whole bunch of beer in Yuma (and besides, it was kind of cold out). So, they executed a wingding and pulled their chains towards Yuma. Remember this: When it comes to Arizona landmarks, you always follow the beer.

And besides, two-and-a-half miles off the mark isn’t that bad. Every survey crew I ever worked for ended every property pin placement with the words: “close enough for government work.”

Bob Boze Bell
Executive Editor, True West magazine

“You Yanks sure make a big deal about clinging to the measurement of a King’s foot.”
—A Brit I know who smirks at our resistance to all things metric, besides 9mm ammunition

April 25, 2009
Worked on dust storm paintings this morning. Have good cavalry reference from one of our Community members right here on the site. I’ll post some of the art later. I’m going up the hill this morning for the Arizona History Conference in Prescott. Dales Miles is giving a presentation on Apaches and I’m meeting an author who is doing a new book on Tombstone and wants to chat about who to contact and who to avoid. I’m a bit of an expert on both. Although if you asked some of the authors and researchers on my list to avoid you would no doubt find me on their list to avoid. Ha.

“History is a series of events that shouldn’t have happened.”
—Old Vaquero Saying

April 23, 2009
Went home for lunch and whipped out a scene of Mickey Free riding straight into a dust storm:

This goes with the sequence of the cavalry patrol meeting the “open pepper box.” Remington comments: “The dust storm rolled towards us and every man braced himself except Mickey Free, who rode out, cursing to meet it.”

My take on Mickey is that, although he fails as an Apache, as a soldier, or, as a member of any culture, he rides out to meet every storm.

Or, as Tom Horn says of his compadre: “It’s hard to stop something that won’t stop coming.”

True of the storm. True of Mickey.

“What cannot be changed, must be endured.”
—Old Vaquero Saying

April 23, 2009
One of the stops on our art trip last week (hard to believe we left Phoenix a week ago today), was the Lowe’s in Alamogordo. Last October when Kathy and I attended a marriage workshop in Cloudcroft, we flew to El Paso, rented a car and on the way up the mountain, stopped at Lowe’s for wine and weekend snacks. Inside the big grocery store I marveled at all of the blown up historic photos that lined the walls—like this one:

This was in the cheese department. The problem was I didn’t bring my camera, so on this latest trip I made sure we stopped there so I could take a few photos of the photos. For example, I also really dug this photo because of the great hat reference:

Looks to be about 1900 or 1910 and I believe this was in the cosmetic section. But the biggest surprise was in the liquor department. Up on the wall, for all to see, is one of the alleged killers of Albert Jennings Fountain and his six-year-old son:

Fountain had indictments for rustling cattle for certain local cattlemen, and he and his son were killed as they rode in a buggy back to Mesilla, on the White Sands. Their bodies have never been found and it’s one of the biggest mysteries in New Mexico to this day. From the probable death site (authorities found blood), trackers trailed the tracks of several horses straight to the ranch house of this guy:

Oliver Lee was pursued by none other than Pat Garrett and at the subsequent trial at Hillsboro, New Mexico, Garrett and Lee’s attorney, Albert Fall squared off on the witness stand. Lee got off scott free and ended up, just like Jimmie Dolan, as a solid citizen, honored beyond Aisle Three:

And I thought Arizona was shameless in promoting its thieves and killers. Alamogordo even has Oliver Lee State Park, south of town to honor their favorite son (of a buck). Ha.

Of course, this is all contentious in that part of the state and I’ve heard of fist fights breaking out at rodeos because some cowboy cast aspersions about Lee.

When I took my Aunt Sadie Pearl Duncan and my mother on a trip to New Mexico in 1991 we visited with Cordelia Lewis in nearby La Luz, and she had nothing but praise for “Dad Lee” and she also told us when she was a little bitty girl she had a crush on a cowboy named Wayne Brazel. I about fell out of my chair. Not THAT Wayne Brazel? The man who killed the man who killed Billy the Kid?

It was. She said Brazel was the most handsome “blue-eyed” cowboy she had ever seen and as a young girl she would go out in a bull pen and climb a tree so that he would have to come save her (I think she was about ten at the time).

So there you have it: cold-blooded killers honored in grocery stores. Life is certainly stranger than anything you could make up.

“He who seeks, is being sought.”
—Old Vaquero Saying

April 22, 2009
Went home for lunch and utilized one of the art reference photos I took on our Billy the Kid trip last week:

The mountain range is inspired from a ridgeline on the White Sands Missile Range, on the way from Alamogordo to Las Cruces. Great pleated ridgeline close to Pat Garrett’s ranch (which is on the missile range and you can’t go there unless you clear it with the Air Force).

That’s Mickey Free skirting the dust storm (actually a monster dust devil). I’m not sure I can explain why there’s so much wind around the lad. Perhaps it’s because the guys who are writing his story are so windy. Ha.

“The fatal metaphor of progress, which means leaving things behind us, has utterly obscured the real idea of growth, which means leaving things inside us.”
—G. K. Chesterton