The Last Mad Ravings

The Last Mad Ravings

 

<Last week: All that's Fit to Print 

I began this blog forty two weeks ago, late in October of ’18. The purpose was to chronicle my progress in what I called The Lost Canyon Project: photographing and cataloguing the artwork of my late friend, Pete Hampton.

Last week I boxed up the last paintings from archive # 14, and returned them to the storage locker in La Habra. The Lost Canyon Project is complete. This last Friday I mailed the completed catalog of Pete’s work off to his brother, Richard in South Carolina.

The timing could not have been worse. Tracking on the package indicated that it will arrive at the Hamptons’ home on Tuesday. Unfortunately, so will hurricane Dorian. Prayers that Rick and Geri, and their home will be OK.

After lining up all the collected archives in the storage space, I brought home one last collection of Pete’s stuff to look through: two boxes of what I called the ‘mad ravings’. I selected a couple from the bags of stuff Pete had saved. They’re posted below.

 The last paintings in the archived collections dated from the early 1980’s. By the middle of the decade Pete would paint no more.

I wrote earlier- this roughly coincides with the time when our whole group of friends was beginning to break apart. Dee Gayer had moved. Rick and Geri would move out of town. Jeff, Bob, and I saw less and less of each other.

 As time passed, and we got on with life, it was easier and easier to not pay Pete a visit. Soon we all lost touch altogether. The last few times I saw Pete were sometime in the late 1990’s. I can’t really remember, except to recall that he was in rough shape, both physically and mentally. He had been hospitalized for binge drinking on several occasions, and would be again. 
Jeff Goslowsky was the last of all of the gang to see Pete with any regularity. But Pete was getting more and more difficult. In time he wore down even Jeff’s stoic patience.

Pete’s creative fire was exhausted. By the mid 90’s all his old friends were gone. Few women found him amusing. The hope for success that carried Pete through late 60’s and early 70’s was dead and forgotten. The love-in had been over for a very long time, now. Being a freaky nature artist was no longer cool. The Lost Canyon Trip show went nowhere. The future would hold frustration, disappointment, loneliness, anger, illness, and alcohol.

The last boxes of Pete’s stuff were mostly xerox copies of posters like these, plus copies of reviews, and newspaper clippings from the 1960’s, and copies of Lost Canyon writings that I posted here on the blog many weeks ago. The personal writings are not for this blog.

As I wrote at the beginning, this post marks the completion of The Lost Canyon Project. The blog, however, will continue with weekly posts. Thank you for stopping by.

Next week: And Where To, Now?>