MUDFOOT AT LETOON
Tumbled columns in brittle reeds & sunken stone blocks; mud of centuries sucking me down. — Mehmet, my self-appointed guide — Stuck in the mud this shapeless mass used to be my foot! — Drifted sand over a mosaic harp of Apollo, a bow of Artemis. Leta, mother of both by Zeus* stopped here to bathe the infant dieties. The towns[people chased her off. She turned them into frogs. So naturally they built her a temple right here on the spot. About 525 BC. *All those sculptures of “Leda and the Swan?” —— “…looks beautiful in the guidebook but in the dog days of August, when I was drawing it with sweat dripping off my face and staining the page, it was sun-baked, crusted mud. My self-appointed guide Mehmet, a lithe 12-year-old, scampered nimbly across the old scored stones, while I stepped carefully between the clumps of brittle dead reeds and broke through right down into sucking sticky swamp. My foot felt like it was being digested. I pulled up hard, swearing at Mehmet, and nothing happened for the longest time. I was wearing a pair of flip-flop platform sandals from LA. I was fond of them; I would not let my foot slip out, and finally with a great sucking sound the sandal came free loaded with about five pounds of mud. I limped out of the temple swamp and it took a helpful attendant with a hose and a brush ten minutes to get the mud off, but I got a hell of a drawing.” —TV, another email from summer 2000
CITY ON THE PLAIN
View from the theater across the stadium to the round towers — On the vast coastal plain the ruined city of PERGE—— Drawn many months later from photographs I took that day with Pierre, at my sister’s kitchen table in California.——
THE ROUND TOWERS
PERGE fell to Alexander the Great but rose again many times over only to fall on this plain where it lies now finally & forever. — From a photo taken August 2000 with Pierre & Abdullah——
TOWERS UP CLOSE
PERGE Pierre in the ruins at PERGE August 2000. From photos – it must have been 120º in there that day — Tower close-up in the relentless eternal late afternoon sun—— That was quite a night there at my sister’s kitchen table. I was up drawing until dawn.
A SLANT ON PERGE
… I don’t know how old these towers are or what they were; I only know I want to see them again — From a photo taken August 2000. Rendered months later in California – Oh, how I wish I knew when I could go back!! Will I ever dance or walk again? Of course I will this is just fear & self-pity.——
TURKISH FLASHBACK 1
Noah/Mt Ararat — Mata Hari/Istanbul —St Peter – St Paul – Virgin Mary/Ephesus —- Suleyman the Magnificent/Istanbul — Alexander the Great/Anatolia —- King Midas/Gordium — Achilles/Troy —Santa Claus/Myra — Cleopatra/Side—— Here’s the actual original of this very popular graphic, which I augmented digitally and sell as a poster.
TURKISH FLASHBACK 2
Sir Richard Burton/En route — Aimee Dubucq DeRivery the French Sultana/Istanbul — Apollo – Leta- Artemis/Letoon —Ataturk/Istanbul-Ankara —Vlad the Impaler Count Dracula/Ottoman Empire — King Ladislas of Poland—— more characters…
TURKISH FLASHBACK FINAL
Because anyone reading this far is a fan, here’s the digitally-completed release version. If I drew it today it would be twice as long!