When he described the screams, weeping and lamentations of the tormented, I heard a Mormon Tabernacle choir of grief and saw the flickering red lights of hell. As he stalked the platform, he mimed the antics of the damned: the writhing, screaming and begging. I sneaked a look at the people behind me. They were riveted, hanging on every word, swaying like trees in this aural wind. "Wow!" I thought, as the hairs stood up on my neck, "I want to do that!" And so, I came to that dark chicken-house with an inspired and graphic message about chicken-hell.

"Jonah"

Acrylic on cardboard
17" x 14"
(Click on image to enlarge
in a new window)

Several years ago, I hit a bad patch on the Road of Life. Within a matter of a few months, my hearing loss escalated to 90%, my car burned along with all my lecture materials and I had expensive surgery. Without my car, I lost all of my lecture/storytelling opportunities, my debts exceeded my income and the bank recommended that I sell my home. Then, there was this woman...... I got depressed.

I ended up in therapy. Along with an assortment of exotic drugs, the shrinks suggested that I paint. This was my first painting. I'm not especially religious, but I have always loved the Old Testament stories, and for whatever reason, Jonah had always fascinated me. He was in "the big fish" for three days, and then he was sort of "resurrected." So, here he is somewhere in limbo, neither alive or dead and dozing in the interim.

"The Fall of
Sky Woman"
Acrylic, Sharpie marker
on cardboard.
33inches x 27 inches
(Click image to enlarge
in  new window)

Since I live near the Cherokee Reservation and worked for over 15 years for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, I've picked up a lot of myth and legend. This is one of my favorites. It is called "The Fall of Sky Woman," and is based on an old myth that explains how the Cherokees got beans, corn, potatoes and strawberries. Originally, all four plants grew only in the Cherokee paradise. The original story is humorous. The old god of the sky became infatuated with a young goddess and managed to get her pregnant by blowing in her ear! She came to live with him, but in a very short time, the old god became disillusioned.

She talked all the time, and she asked questions, questions, questions. One of her favorites had to do with the heavenly tree that glowed (there was neither sun or moon yet) and provided the only light in the universe. How did it glow? What was beneath the surface of heaven? The old god began to stay away from home so that he could avoid his talkative, young, pregnant wife. One day, he returned home to find that his wife had uprooted the heavenly tree and was trying to see what was beneath heaven by peering down through the great hole she had created in the floor of heaven. The old god saw a chance to rid himself of his new wife. He kicked her through the hole. As she fell, she grabbed frantically at all the plants around her and uprooted beans, corn, potatoes and strawberries. The plants fell with her. All of the birds in the world saw her falling and flew together to weave their wings into a blanket. They caught the pregnant woman, but they had no place to put her down since there was no earth...just a great, unstable mass of muddy water. They managed to convince a gigantic turtle to rise from the depths of the ocean and his shell became the surface of the earth. The young woman was placed there and other creatures (turtles, fish and diving birds), brought mud up from the bottom of the ocean and packed it on the turtle's shell. The plants grew, and the woman gave birth to two sons...... The story was just beginning......

"Learning to Ride
a Leopard"
Acrylic and Sharpie marker 
on cardboard
16" x 14" (and variations)
(Click image to enlarge
in  new window)

This painting has caused me a bit of trouble and I am surprised. Regardless of what some people have read into it, the painting is actually based on a Joseph Campbell quote about how dangerous it is for creative people to pursue their instincts. He compares leading an active artistic life to riding a tiger or leopard and notes that once the artist is "on board," it is difficult to get off without being torn to shreds.

I once saw a painting by a wonderful artist, Philip Evergood, called "Learning to Ride a Tiger," and I have carried the image in my head ever since although my painting bears little resemblance to Evergood's. One of my friends asked me why the lady in the painting was nude. I'm not sure, but I think that she never would have gotten close to this leopard if she had been fully clothed. At any rate, she is proceeding with great caution, slowly sneaking an arm and a leg over the leopard's back. She knows what she is doing.

"Mason Jars
in the Flood"
(Click image to enlarge
in  new window)

The story behind this painting is on the Storytelling page of this website, and it is also the name of my book which will be out in February of this year. It is a true incident. I still live in the original farmhouse, and sometimes in the afternoon, I look down the road and "pretend" that somebody finally shows up...some shadowy figure trudging through the dusk with a Mason jar in one hand, and ....well, maybe not a stack of Captain Marvels (although they would be worth a fortune now). I mean, maybe the figure is female and perhaps looks a little like Debra Paget in "Broken Arrow." Maybe she has an old Ray Charles LP with Ray and Anita Carter singing duets...things like "Everytime We Say Good-bye" and "Baby, It's Cold Outside." Maybe she will stop at the foot of the steps and say, "Gary, it took me a long time to find you. Let's play!"

"Two Foxes Dancing
on a Moonlit Road
in Georgia"
Acrylic and Sharpie marker
on cardboard
14" x 16"
(Click image to enlarge
in  a new window)

I have a friend that tells me that this painting is "whimsical." Sounds good. Other than the fact that it has a sort of early-Disney quality, I have always associated romance with hot summer nights in rural Georgia. I haven't the vaguest idea why that is so. Maybe they are doing a tango..something like "La Comparasita." Yeah! I like the idea that foxes probably do this all the time. Of course, they quit when they hear a car coming.

"Daniel in the Lions' Den"
Acrylic on cardboard
28" x 38"
(Click image to enlarge
in  a new window)

"Rapture at MacDonald's"
Acrylic and Sharpie marker
on cardboard
21" x 30"
(Click image to enlarge
in  a new window)

Sometime during the early hysteria about the Millennium, I heard a Pentecostal minister rhapsodize about "the rapture." There were lots of interesting details...like when the chosen rise up to meet Jesus in the sky, they will be naked! The preacher said that was because on that final day, nothing will be hidden. Well, that got my interest. He also said that there would be some tragic accidents since airline pilots, truck drivers and brain surgeons would be whisked away, leaving planes, semis and patients unattended. He even advised those who thought they would be among the rising nudists to prepare their children because they might come home from school to an empty house. They might find Mommy's and Daddy's clothes in little pre-rapture piles in the kitchen and living room and be confused. He said that the parents should tell the kids what to expect. I guess he means things like leaving a note that says, "Mommy and Daddy were called away suddenly. Dinner is in the fridge. Do your homework, don't watch too much TV and be in bed by ten." But, there won't be time for a note, right? Maybe it is in a big envelope on the fridge with instructions: "In case we vanish, read this!" Anyway, I got to thinking about "the Rapture" at places like MacDonald's. There they go! On their way with quarter-pounders and slurpies. They have clothes on, though. I mean, really, there is such as a thing as proper deportment! Some things should remain a mystery

This old lady was a real person. In fact, she was notorious. She was tried for murder back in the early 1900's, was almost lynched and ended up serving 15 years at hard labor as convict labor on the coast of North Carolina. She was 65 at the time of the trial and 80 when she was released. She was charged with murdering her two-year-old granddaughter (there were mitigating circumstances). When she returned to Haywood County, her family locked the door and wouldn't let her in the house. Afterwards, she became a outcast who lived in a one-room shack and split kindling which she sold to Florida tourist to earn her $5.00 per month rent. She was considered a witch by the local residents, and her only friends were a number of stray dogs that followed her about. I wrote a play about her, and this painting was reproduced on a postcard as a promotion gimmick. I sold the original and it is now in Akron, Ohio. Incidentally, there is a very good book on Nance Dude. It is called "The Legend of Nance Dude" by Maurice Stanley.

I have always loved Greek mythology. Even back in my Captain Marvel days, the Bullfinch collection of Greek myths gave my comic books some pretty stiff competition. Then, there are the art works that gave the stories of Zeus, Ulysses and Medea tangible form. Back in my beardless youth, sculpture and painting was the equivalent of Playboy magazine. All of those beautiful naked people! Leda and her swan was a favorite. Well, being a storyteller, I tend to think in analogies and parallels. If Leda were a fetching little Appalachian maiden, she wouldn't have swans. She would go out each morning and feed the chickens. She should watch out for that rooster, though...the guy on the fence post over there.