click for a close-up view
I loved Phil's art before I ever knew him and I watched him on T.V. and movies way before he became my brother in law. Phil died May 28, 1998. A day that changed the trajectory of many lives. But I don't want to talk about the day or way he died, I want to talk about his art. John and Phil were very close and they were born in Brantford, Ontario Canada. There were 8 Hartmann children all together. They came to California in 1959 and John went to work in the mailroom at William Morris in 1961 and worked his way up the ranks in the entertinment industry. When he became an integral part of the music business he was able to help Phil get job's doing album covers of many of the seminal rock bands that changed music as we know it. John managed the bands and Phil did the album covers. I have posted a few samples of some of the now famous covers that you might not realize Phil created. He was a very talented graphic artist as well as just an all around talented artist and he was good at pretty much anything he put his mind to. He spent 9 years on SNL which is probably the longest of all the comedians, he cowrote Pee Wee's Big Adventure with Paul Reubens, he played Captain Carl on The Pee Wee Herman Show, for the Simpson's he did the voices of Lionel Hutz and Troy McClure, he was in over 2o movies and he played a wonderful character on News Radio as part of a great ensemble cast. Back to the art, you can see from these paintings that he really had a creative mind and hand and the Poco horse and CSN logo are sheer genius! Their Mom, Doris had a real creative spirit and was a wonderful artist herself and owned a very cool shop in San Juan Capistrano for many years. We really miss Phil , but he lives on in reruns on t.v., movies, his artwork, his children, brothers and sisters and friends and fans.
You might have noticed on the picture of Phil, he signed it to John using the name Chippie. That is because everybody in his family called him Chippie, John's daughter (my stepdaughter ) Ohara named him this when she was a very little girl
1. America's Greatest Hits 2. Poco Seven 3.Poco Legend 4. CSN logo used on many album covers and this was a patch they made for Jackets 5. Poco Cantamos
This pink house is an Angel flying back home to the hood and the Devil lives next door...
Flying Home:Resin, Wood and Foam copyright 1992
Tomorrow I will post some more closeups of this painting because blogger won't let me upload any more pictures.
Fishing with the Fishers is a layered dimensional painting with resin.
I have participated in the Topanga Art Studio Tours all 4 years since the inception. This will be our 5th tour and it is a wonderful experience. Studio tours are usually the second week of June for 2 days. You start out at the gallery, each artist will have one piece of art hanging , one silent auction painting and you purchase a book for $25.00 it has a description plus a bio of each artist with a map of how to get to their studio. For 2 days you can visit as many studios as you would like. At least 50 artists are involved. Last year they started a silent auction. They provide you with an 8" x 8 " canvas and if you finish it by May 1st it is photographed and included on the promotional invite they provide for the artists, they also make an e-vite using the art too. This tour is the perfect show for me because I am pretty reclusive and this way I don't have to leave my house! The people usually come in small waves so the art lovers get to have one on one time with the artist. People that enjoy coming to Topanga and seeing the houses, gardens and life here enjoy the tour too. Here is my auction painting that I made last week it took 3 days because I made a little mushroom house and resined it so that added more time. I decided to use my theme of the forest as a room along with this little mushroom house growing out of the grassy carpet. The bidding will start at $50.00 and I will donate all the proceeds to the gallery. The invite hasn't been printed yet so I used last years invite to show how it looks with all the 8x8's. The show this year is Saturday, June 10, 10:00 am-6:00 pm and Sunday, June 11, 11:00 am -5:00 pm. Reception: Saturday, June 10, 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm at the Topanga Canyon Gallery.
My submission for Illustration Friday's theme "Under the Sea" is from my 2001 HomeMade calendar. The title is "Beach House". The sand castle always ends up back under the sea but I enjoy them while they last. I actually have a great underwater painting but it is on film and I need to have it scanned. If this can be accomplished I will post it. Hope everyone has a lovely weekend.
Cream from www.krimsong.blogspot.com tagged me for 6 random things.
Babs loves this movie, Charlie wants to change the channel
My print of "I Never forget a face : Above 
This is how I finish the story and Michael Nouri says " I have a Sam Peckinpah story too". He is a young actor living in New York and his agent calls and says you are being offered a part in a new Sam Peckinpah movie called "Osterman's Weekend". You have to pay your own way out to California but you should go and read for it. He does and meets SP and he doesn't even have to read SP gives him the part! He goes back to NY and his agent calls and says you are being offered a role in a movie called "Flash Dance" and he says to his agent what should I do? The agent says, "Take the part in "Flash Dance" it's directed by Adrian Lyne who has directed two movies but you will have the lead, so he did and Osterman's Weekend bombed. It was the last movie that Sam Peckinpah directed ane he died not that long after it was released. "Flash Dance" was a big hit and everyone in the cast became well known.
I have expeienced a lot of unusual events but this whole story and storytelling experience at this party ranks high in the synchronicity dept. I will never forget meeting that legendary movie maker who has been referred to as one of the last great American directors. When Michael Nouri walked in the door the first thing that popped in my mind was " the guy in Flash Dance! Because I never forget a face...
Recently I had to go through all of my past life to put together a professional resume. Funny, it has been so long since I have needed a resume. I mentioned that I lived with artist Michael Bedard in the 80's. We used to go out to the desert to a mineral hotsprings at a spa called Two Bunch Palms. They used this place in the movie "The Player". It was Al Capone's hideaway just outside of Palm Springs. When we would stay it was not super well known so it was a real nice 3 hour get away from LA. It was at this very place that Yote walked into my life. She looked an awful lot like a coyote when I first caught a glimpse of her and she was wild as can be. Michael's dog Hopi had recently died and it was extremely sad and lonely for us. A woman at the spa told me that she had been feeding Yote (This is the name I called her) but she had many dogs at home and could not take her, she was concerned for her welfare and wondered if we could help. We decided we would try to see if she would come with us and indeed she did. We brought her to our beautiful home, we lived on one of the premiere pieces of property in this town, very remote on a mountain way up high facing the ocean with no other houses in our view. Yote was the first dog that was really mine. She quickly became my best friend and she was a real beauty. I started including her in my paintings and the weirdest thing happened, people would always buy them. I would juxtapose this wild dog in a city scene and paint away. I made prints, they would sell. I did an enormous painting "After Midnite" not only did it sell right away but Yamakatsu published it as a puzzle and it sold out every run they made. I would always get excited and tell her we were going to eat well tonite! I was interviewed in the newspaper and my longtime photographer Dave Sessions came to take my picture and Yote somehow got in the shot. I rediscovered this photo the other day, it was not the one used in the newspaper but she looks like a ghost! When she died, I vowed I would never have another dog because it ripped my heart out but then I met Rat and I could not resist...
Once again please forgive the hair, big hair was in then. I should have mentioned this in" Five Strange Things" but my hair started turning white when I was 18 so of course I dyed it for years but in 96 I went au natural.
Top: "Moondoggie" Limited Edition Silkscreen Print by the artist 1991
Middle : "After Midnite" Puzzle / Painting 1987
Me & Yote 1990
Spot illo of Rat 2004
