This is an airbrush painting I did some twenty-five years ago. I call it ‘African Lion’.
The belt hanging over it is a ‘money belt’ used by some vendors in Peru. I have an uncle (since deceased) who was a world traveler. He went to China and Russia in the early seventies when it was hard to get permission to go to those countries, he went again to those countries in the eighties and told of the huge changes in them. He also travelled to Peru at one time and gave me this belt on his return.
It is amazing how much some people touch us in our lives. This uncle had been married five or six times through the years… I guess these days we’d call him a ’serial monogamist’. He used to tell us all the time to “stay single, and raise your kids the same way”. For some reason that kids nowadays would not understand, that was a hilarious line in the sixties.
He was one of those fellows who not only went from country to country and woman to woman, he also went from job to job. He worked for a while as a gravedigger, and in the late fifties as a ’slot-machine technician’ in Las Vegas. Eventually he took a job as a Correctional Officer at Alcatraz. This ended up being the job that changed his life and caused him to stop roaming around so much. The Federal government gave him stability and a home of sorts, and he had many interesting experiences working with the Federal Prison Service. He told me a few times of the ‘Birdman of Alcatraz’. My uncle was a bit surprised that the movies continually show the ‘Birdman’ with pigeons, but he did not have pigeons at Alcatraz. He was also portrayed as a nice man, caring and wise; but Uncle Jack said the Birdman was actually a mean terrible and vindictive person.
We go through life, we experience much, and we try to learn from those before us. Listen to the old folks, they’ve been through it all before.
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