The Anger

The Anger 

 

<Last week: A Scary True Story

 

It is a clear, warm Monday morning, and I’m sitting here at the keyboard trying to type through a deep brain fog. I got back home yesterday afternoon after a very long drive and a couple days of non-stop smokin’, drinkin,’ and  bullshitting with a couple of old friends up northern California way. It was good. 

That web of coincidence that initiated this project has stretched far and deep into my life, and even touched the lives of people I knew from long ago. This last weekend was a byproduct of the long chain of events that began with my saying “yes” to a visit to the Sawdust Festival a couple years back.

And this rambling bit of a post is a byproduct of spending the last week getting ready to travel, traveling, and returning home, and not getting a heck of a lot done with the Project.

The scary story post from last week seemed to generate a lot of traffic for the blog. I traded a couple of notes on the story with Pete’s brother Richard, who brought up an important point about Pete. 

I have written on many occasions that Pete was “wildly eccentric”, or even mad.

He was all of that, and it was readily apparent to anyone who met him. Some found Pete’s eccentric manner fascinating; others found him-- I guess, “Off-putting” would be a good way to put it.

And Pete knew it. He was always misunderstood. He was always  too painfully aware that a great percentage of the people he encountered in life dismissed him as an odd ball, and would never take him or his work seriously. He carried tremendous anger.

Richard made this poignant observation on Pete’s narrative of the Scary Story event:

“…Having read it this time I was intrigued by Pete's matter a fact recall of events, and justification for shooting these creeps without any apparent remorse. Peter was a gentle soul when it came to nature,  people...not so much.”

We all talked about this at Pete’s memorial. Yes, he had tremendous anger, bitterness, and raw hatred for people, for the world, and especially  for the builders who destroyed the hillsides. He had weapons and firearms. In the realms of his imagination Pete  wreaked incredible violence on his enemies.

Yet he took out that rage in his writings, his audio tapes, his paintings, and most often, in the “mad ravings” posters that I covered several posts back. And alcohol. There was always the alcohol.

But he kept his demons confined in the darkness of his imagination. Pete never hurt anyone. He never threatened anyone. He never took revenge for the slights, the disrespect, or the dishonesty of others.

Next week we’ll take a look into the darkness. Pete loved the macabre, and he was good at expressing it. Hold on tight. It’s gonna get all kinds of creepy here for Halloween.

Next. A note from the Scribe

Revisions and Slow

Revisions and Slow

<last week: nightmares in the Whittier Hills

I had hoped to be well underway on photographing the pictures from archive 13, but, you know- life intervenes. I had to do some revisions on the Word document, which led to revisions in the photo album, and that ate up all the Lost Canyon time this last week. We’ll continue this week  with some more paintings from “The Lost Canyon Trip”.

The Lost Canyon Project is actually three different projects going on at once. The first is photographing the pictures, and processing them into digital photo albums.  The second is creating a catalogue of the work.  It’s here that I got hung up this last week. 

I've been laying out the catalogue with three thumbnail photos plus notes per page. As it turns out, at three pictures per page the thumbnails were just too small.  So I’ve been re-formatting the pages at two pictures per page.

Problem is, I have about 320 pictures done out of 733 photographed so far. This is going to take a few sessions to finish, but it will be well worth the effort.

The third part of The Lost Canyon Project is this blog, and my efforts to promote it, and in so doing, promote Pete’s work. 
I’ve made some calls, sent some links and emails, but beyond that, who knows? I’ll be able to shift my focus better when the other tasks are completed.

There is one more box of  Lost Canyon Trip paintings yet to photograph. After that there is a bunch of large framed pieces at the storage. And after that? There will be a phase in the project that follows all the picture taking, and cataloguing but I don’t yet know what that phase will be. 

 This part of the project remains rather vague, and undefined. We shall see what follows. But for now, enjoy this week’s selection of pictures. More stuff next week.

Next: A Greater Hand>

Nightmares in the Whittier Hills

Nightmares in the Whittier Hills

<Last week: Deep in the Whittier Hills

The photography is finished, and all the pictures are processed for Archive 12, “Paintings From The Lost Canyon Trip 1962- 1970.” At 145 paintings and drawings Archive 12 is the largest single collection of Pete Hampton’s paintings so far. At this point there are 733 paintings and drawings recorded. The next archive is easily as large as this one. I'm guessing the total will come out to somewhere just under a thousand pieces all told. We shall see. 

For those who are just joining us We are exploring the artwork of Pete Hampton, 1940-2018. The paintings we’re looking at are all from Pete’s masterwork, The Lost Canyon Trip. 


 Follow THIS LINK for the background information on the Lost Canyon Trip show.  It’s fascinating stuff.

The paintings in this archive were created specifically as scenes in Pete’s multi-media slideshow. I attended showings of The Lost Canyon Trip four or five times during the 1960’s and 70’s. Of course, many years have passed since I last saw the show. Nonetheless, I do remember these scenes well. 

In the show, a teen-age Pete, and his pal Jeff are camping overnight in Pete’s hut up in the Lost Canyon. During the course of the night the boys have nightmares. Dreams were of profound importance to Pete.

This is Jeff’s nightmare:

…And Pete’s:

 

 

 

 

  

But later on...

Next Week: A look at #13