Thursday, October 11, 2007

Historic life-note relating to drawing

Back in the late 60's I lived in San Francisco. Yep, then. That's where I met my husband. A couple of his friends came out to Frisco from Nebraska to join us at the house we rented in the Filmore. One was S. Clay Wilson, who later became a fairly famous cartoonist. He met R. Crumb but went off on his own path. In the movie Crumb which came out in 1995 there is a home-movie clip of a party at Crumb's home and a brief shot of Wilson, tall with long dark hair.

When Wilson, my ex and "Gus" wrote to each other, yes snail mail letters back then, they always decorated their letters and envelopes with drawings. These guys were masters of hatching, dotting and myriad other drawing techniques. I was in awe. Even though their subject matter was often hard to take, violent and sexist at least in Wilson's case, their drawing was excellent. My ex used a rapidograph pen.

When my soon to be husband and I decided to leave San Francisco and travel to Missouri where ex was from, Wilson tried to persuade me to stay and live with him. No idea why. He had a "woman." I didn't stay, but Wilson stole a wonderful radio of mine made by Matsubisha.
It sure worked well. But in those days one brushed material possessions off ones shoulder as if they were dandruff. Not long after we left, both ex and I learned we had finally gotten jobs, he for the post office and me as a secretary, but oh well, we were gone. Wonder what my life would have been like had I stayed?

2 comments:

Cris, Artist in Oregon said...

Interesting thought. Our lives can take many different paths by our decisions we make along the way of living. We chose the best we can and live that life the best we can.
Interesting life story.

Elizabeth said...

Interesting... I've been thinking about this a lot lately, "the path not taken" and all that.

So does this mean that you are a celebrity by association? (My claims to fame are not nearly so cool)- Groovy Suki! Cool and groovy :-)

Blessings to you.