Wrapping Up the Third Archive

Wrapping Up the Third Archive

<previous The Hills The Show

 

We’re continuing on from last week, talking about Pete  Hampton and his Lost Canyon Trip show. But first, I’d like to wrap up the material from the third archive.  I’ve been going through the writings, sketches, xerox copies, and paintings in the folios from archive 3, and I’ve gleaned out a handful of absolute gems. There are some fine pieces in the “Cloud Sketches” bag. I’ve recorded a few pieces from the Nightmare file, too. 

This group is from the “Cloud Sketches" bag.  This was a thick mailing envelope containing dozens and dozens of sketches with a few small paintings hiding in the mix.  Most of these are done on odd scraps of matboard, cardboard, or whatever Pete had handy. Some are the size of calling cards, none is bigger than 8x10. I did not get a count of all the pieces, nor did I photograph them all. 

  Actually, I tried a couple of times to get a count of the pieces. Every time, I got distracted by an inscription, or a familiar landscape, and just sort of went down the rabbit hole. Nonetheless, I did sort through the entire collection, and I’m glad that I did. 

A couple from the “Nightmare” file:

This next one is just too creepy!

A little surrealism...

 And now, back to The Lost Canyon Trip.

Last week I posted this picture of “The Lost Canyon Trip” flyer: 

The coincidences continue. This flyer happened to be the cover picture for a program for the show. Here it is in Pete’s own words (re-posted in correct order. apologies to early readers):

Pete had absolute faith in his talent, and in his work, and in his mission.  Pete believed that his show would be the catalyst for a preservation movement, that those who saw The Lost Canyon Trip would be so moved by the experience, that they would share his enthusiasm and join in his crusade to save the hills.  He believed that he would one day be “recognized” like Elvis, Walt Disney, or The Beatles.

Of course, it never happened. As I’ve said before, the show took unbelievable amounts of hard work to create. 

Consider:

 Countless paintings and sketches.

Days and nights spent alone in the hills to sketch, take pictures, and record sounds. 

Hundreds of hours creating the sound track.

Thousands of photographs. 

Remember too, this was film photography. Every single time you clicked the shutter you had to pay to get that snap shot processed, and printed into a slide, or a glossy photo. 

Not to mention the footwork involved in promoting his show.

Those who knew Pete well could enjoy The Lost Canyon Trip, and  appreciate  it for the incredible work that it was. Those who were acquaintances (and Pete had hundreds) got a kick out of the show, and usually had nice things to say about it. If you walked in cold with no idea what you were about to see? That’s kind of a different story. 

As I said last week,  it was a small, funky, very home-made production. It was the slide show to end all slide shows. But when all was said and done, it was a slide show. And a very long one, at that.

I’ll have more on Pete, and the show next week. I was going to write about that curious ‘credits’ picture from last week’s post, but there’s story enough about that panel to warrant a post of its own. Next week.

*SNEAK PREVIEW ALERT

As promised, I’ve opened a new archive of paintings, all of them from The Lost Canyon or The Lost Era shows. There is some stunning work here. Here is a sample.

 

Next week: When We Were Kids>