This is a character who has appeared in many paintings over the years and in a few comix here and there. I saw a hilarious Dos Equis commercial a week or two ago about the most interesting man in the world. This is a play on that commercial East Nashville style.
Howdy Friends,
I wanted to take a minute to mention some sad news. Anyone who has lived, or visited Nashville over the past two decade will likely know Velvet Thunder, though you may not know him by that name. Velvet Thunder was a fixture in downtown Nashville for many years. He often sat out in front of the Spaghetti Factory on 2nd Avenue with his guitar across his lap plucking away and serenading passers-by. On busy weekend nights it was fairly common to see folks having their picture taken with Velvet and joining him on a few bars of “Big Legged Woman” (one of his original compositions). I remember the first time I met Velvet Thunder in 1987. He introduced himself to me as The Half-White Man which is what I called him for many years to follow. I hung around Velvet (The Half-White Man) for maybe an hour on a cool night in November of 1987. I was listening to him play songs – he had a repertoire of about 4 songs which he played over and over. In between each song he would tell some kind of fantastic story that was far too absurd to be true. He was fond of showing photographs of himself posing with Mohamed Ali, Ray Charles and President Reagan (they were actually cardboard cutouts of the people he was posing with, but he liked to pass them off as genuine photographs taken with these famous people). I found the guy to be completely entertaining. In fact, I was so impressed with The Half-White Man that shortly after my first meeting him in 1987, I created a cartoon character based on him. [As many of you may know, I fancied myself a cartoonist in my younger days.] Thus was born a character I called “Dope the Blues Frog.” 22 years later, I don’t really recall where that name came from.
So, years past and I would see Velvet/The Half-White Man out there on the street every weekend. His musical repertoire would grow ever so slightly as the years past. Let’s face it, he wasn’t Robert Johnson on guitar, but then it wasn’t his musical ability that drew me to him in the first place. It was his stories, his street hustler’s charm and the fact that not a lot seemed to bother him. As time wore on, Velvet had a lot of health problems. I understood that he was Diabetic. I have to admit, I sort of forgot about Velvet. Then I heard from a friend of mine who told me he had passed away last week.
So, here’s to you Velvet Thunder, aka The Half-White Man… God Bless you!
Please check this out: http://www.tennessean.com/article/20091123/OBITS/911230314/Iconic+Nashville+street+musician+Velvet+Thunder+dies
Well, I am sitting here in my studio on hold with Jerry’s Artarama. I have been on hold for about 15 minutes now with the best lite jazz one could ever imagine rotting my ear off. The problem is that Jerry’s screwed my order up for a second time. That is right! I ordered 20 packages of 8″ X 10″ matte board in black about 10 days ago. They shipped me 20 packages of white matte board. So, I called them back and they said, “Oh, no problem. We are so sorry. We will send out the black matte board right away. We are so sorry for this inconvenience.”
So UPS pulled up in my driveway 30 minutes ago, handed me the replacement box and when I opened it…that’s right! 20 packages of white matte board. The thing that is so irritating to me is that I have had this happen with another art supplier. We have a Jerry’s retail store in Nashville and it is a great place to shop, but artists beware when ordering from the Jerry;s catalog, or web site.
I figure that there are a bunch of stoners hanging out in the warehouse and they are probably too baked to know the difference between black and white. Anyway, hopefully this will be resolved soon. There is my rant for the day!
Here is more press on my current show at Estel. Have you seen it? You really should.
The fabulous Sam Dunson, and I have a show at Estel Gallery in Nashville. The show is titled “Trading Stories” with an emphasis on narrative art works. Will Ayers of The Tennessean (Nashville’s local newspaper) was nice enough to write a feature about the show. Here is a link to that article.
Just when you thought it was safe to open your local paper…I show up. Not often enough but it looks like the Chattanooga press may like my work.
Here is a story from the Chattanooga Pulse about the business of art with interviews from myself, Dolan Geiman and Laura Nugent.
We are all going to be at the 4 Bridges Arts Festival in Chattanooga, TN this weekend.
Also, look for me (hopefully) in the Chattanooga Free Press this weekend.
If you are in the area, stop by. It should be a lot of fun and some great art. In a sign of the times, they are having to charge a gate fee of $5/person to get in. It used to be free but corporate sponsership is hard to come by at the moment. I heard it was either charge or not have the show.
I have a feeling that things are getting better soon. Maybe it is just gas?
Hooper
This is a painting that I currently have in the Estel Gallery “Rock, Paper, Scissors” show. Check out their web site for information on purchasing this piece.
