Book 8 – September 2000 – Woman Wailing — “..a savage place! As holy and enchanted / As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted / By woman wailing for her demon-lover…” —Xanadu, Samuel Taylor Coleridge — Trici Venola – From Memory — Gibbous moon sinking about 4:30 AM Blood red—–
This book is a combination of spectacular scenery, ancient history and my own personal horror story. I was wildly in love with Turkey and with a man who had no idea of what I was about, with demons of his own. I’d burnt all my bridges, which is why I stayed in a bad situation until it almost became fatal. I went between Kaş- where I had friends, and Side, with the bad romance, and I never stopped drawing.
At the worst part of this painful affair I fell and tore a ligament in my left knee. In a botched attempt to repair it, a local hospital gave me a serious bone infection. Recovering took three years and just about everything else. I worked on this book a lot. Some drawings were done from memory and some from photos at the time. Some were drawn from photos in Los Angeles and pasted into the book later, at the place in the story where they were seen.
Much later, in 2017, a patron (angel) replaced the right knee after another fall. The prosthetic kneecap on the left one has disintegrated and can’t be repaired. I’m just glad I can walk without a stick. That run toward the sea when I fell, August 22, 2000, was my last. I never ran again in my life. But I can dance.
SELF PORTRAIT
From a photo of me in Kaş [taken on] 21 August 2000. Drawn in 2001
OH MARVELOUS ILLUSION
Me belting out Gilbert & Sullivan on “Water World’ as the boat plunges wildly through the Mediterranean & Andie and Ricky piss themselves laughing. 12 August 2000 —“Oh Marvelous Illusion / Oh Terrible Surprise! / What is this strange confusion / That veils my aching eyes? / Oh Marvelous Illusion! Oh Terrible Surprise! / Excites a strange confusion within their aching eyes!” —The Sorcerer, Gilbert & Sullivan—– Felt bulletproof and free after the hell of ending my old life, just exploding. Drawn from memory in 2001.
CHARTER CRAFTSMAN RON
A really pleasant evening at Bacchus, KAŞ — One hell of a nice guy. Made me feel so good about myself —- We sat in the grape-shadowed hot hunting dark and talked for hours — Ron, Charter Craftsman — 9 August 2000, Kaş
BIG PEBBLE BEACH
Back in Kaş @ Big Pebble Beach with Andie & Ricky — Polished castanet rocks clattering in crystal waves – Nothing like it — Andie & Friend – 10 August 2000
KEKOVA
[List of Postives] This drawing – 2 sketchbooks in 2 months – Kittens playing under the giant Sycamore as I write this – Still sober – Filter coffee – Dealt w/Room – Welcome in London — Andie’s book is called “Discovering Angels.” We did, in him. — “Please draw me later with my makeup!!” Adorable Kewpie-faced Becky sans makeup — KEKOVA — Waterlogged Lycian tomb — “Oh Marvelous Illusion, oh Terrible Surprise!” Me sitting on the prow belting out Gilbert & Sullivan as the boat bounded through the sea — My top came loose out there but did I care? Who could see? — Every day I wake up a little sadder—— Because, bad romance. I had everything here except that, and the world went grey without it.