David Barker's "Charles Bukowski Spit in My Face"

Bukfan

Bukfan

"The law is wrong; I am right"
I don't think I've ever seen the "Buk on stage with a chair" photo, but I like the watercolor. It's funny to see Buk standing like that.
The "fridge with a beer" photo is a great motif for a painting. And great colors as usual. Well done, Rekrab...
 
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Hosh

Hosh

hoshomccreesh.com
Wow--two perfect paintings! Now I'll always have someone to raise a glass with & MJP has someone to yank his hair out with!
 
Gerard K H Love

Gerard K H Love

Appreciate your friends
Mr. Barker, you have out done everyone else. Now that goofy little blond guy is going to steal your work and put it on tee shirts on ebay.

You are good enough to spit in someone's face, if you want to.
 
Bukfan

Bukfan

"The law is wrong; I am right"
Ah, right! Now I remember it. Thanks, HS...:o

(Speaking of photo's, I believe when the Buk.Georgia photo was shot, some similar Buk-Georgia photo's was shot too at that photo shoot. Do we have any of those here somewhere?)
 
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Rekrab

Rekrab

Usually wrong.
Hosh said:
Wow--two perfect paintings! Now I'll always have someone to raise a glass with & MJP has someone to yank his hair out with!
Click to expand...

Hosh -- I'm really glad you like it. I wondered if it was good enough. I am something of a perfectionist, and I didn't have the smile exactly right. But then if I worked every picture until I had it exactly right, I would ruin most of them by over-working them, and the rest would take forever. So I go for "kind of looks like him and it isn't all bad." That's my gold standard.

Doing tiny teeth in watercolors is not the easiest thing I've attempted with a paintbrush. A frowning Buk is much simpler.
 
HiddenFormula

HiddenFormula

Just stopping by to say I love the paintings Rekrab - bright colours on a Bukowski portrait aren't what I'd expect to see, but man these work really well. You really capture his face and expressions to the tee & the colours just mesmerize you! really like em'.
 
Rekrab

Rekrab

Usually wrong.
Thanks, HiddenFormula. I got the bright color thing from some very high quality watercolors I used to use in the 70s, Dr. Martin's. I ran out and never bought more of them, but I kept the little bottles with their eyedroppers out of sentiment. So I am emulating those quality pigments using the cheapest paints around. The pure/priimary colors approach developed by accident, when I noticed that if I start blending colors too much, my paintings turn into psychedelic rainbows where nothing has it's own color -- it has every color. So I lock into one color or maybe two for each area. It requires me to be more decisive as a painter, which is good.
 
Hosh

Hosh

hoshomccreesh.com
Rekrab said:
Hosh -- I'm really glad you like it. I wondered if it was good enough. I am something of a perfectionist, and I didn't have the smile exactly right. But then if I worked every picture until I had it exactly right, I would ruin most of them by over-working them, and the rest would take forever. So I go for "kind of looks like him and it isn't all bad." That's my gold standard.

Doing tiny teeth in watercolors is not the easiest thing I've attempted with a paintbrush. A frowning Buk is much simpler.
Click to expand...

All too true.

Yeah--I dig the painting. Far better than a photo-realistic piece is one that captures the spirit...& I definitely think the piece does. He seems gripped by drunken laughter...which is a terrific feeling...like I MUST raise a glass to him whenever I'm sitting near the painting. I can't wait to hang it up!

As to the gold standard: it's working!
 
Rekrab

Rekrab

Usually wrong.
Hosh -- glad it works for you. I had doubts that it met the mark. Like I said, I'm kind of a perfectionist, in a sloppy way.
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
The painting in real life is so much more impressive (as every painting is, I suppose). I have to say, I am temped to bend open the staples and take the thing out and put it in a frame it on my wall. I probably won't, but I'm tempted to.

I know we're talking about the paintings a lot, but I guess many of us have already read the text of Spit, so maybe that's why. It was interesting to read the two introductions - the early, angry one, and the more recent accepting one.

And I never knew that you wrote the book in the first place with the intent purpose of making money. Nothing wrong with that, it just adds an important angle to the story that I hadn't known before.

Toppermost of the poppermost.
 
Hosh

Hosh

hoshomccreesh.com
Got mine in the mail today as well--& the painting looks great, David--thanks so much! I'm gonna go read the thing now--as I've never had the pleasure! Glad to add it to my shelf man!
 
Rekrab

Rekrab

Usually wrong.
mjp said:
The painting in real life is so much more impressive (as every painting is, I suppose). I have to say, I am temped to bend open the staples and take the thing out and put it in a frame it on my wall. I probably won't, but I'm tempted to.

I know we're talking about the paintings a lot, but I guess many of us have already read the text of Spit, so maybe that's why. It was interesting to read the two introductions - the early, angry one, and the more recent accepting one.

And I never knew that you wrote the book in the first place with the intent purpose of making money. Nothing wrong with that, it just adds an important angle to the story that I hadn't known before.

Toppermost of the poppermost.
Click to expand...

mjp: feel free to remove the painting ... I won't be offended. Then you'll see it all the time and people will visit you and say "Where did you get that?" It can't hurt.

Yes, I was trying to make the rent during a very tough period. Once I decided on what I was going to write, I forgot all about the money aspect of it and wrote what I would have written anyway for no pay. It was a story to tell, paid or unpaid. I never felt any shame in doing it for the money. I think the heat I took from some people had nothing to do with the commercialism of it; it was about crossing some invisible line; publishing an unauthorised book about Bukowski. That really bothered the self-appointed guardians of the gate. I won't name any names, but one of these fellows later tried to make a load of cash auctioning off his world class Bukowski collection but didn't do very well. I could write yet another, third, intro where I'm even more accepting of the whole thing, and its entire history. What the hell, it was life and I lived it.
 
Rekrab

Rekrab

Usually wrong.
Bill,

Thanks for setting this up. Hope it's not too tough determining what photos were used as models. Most or all of these images can be found online, but they usually aren't credited to anyone. I figure the experts here will know who took the photos, if you can figure out what photos they were in the first place. I know seeing the original photos would help -- don't know if I can post those without getting into copyright hassles.
 
roni

roni

The top-left and top-mid are MM-pics.

The bottom-left-pic should be by Thomas Häpker or Inter-Topics, Hamburg.
I will have to ask around for this one.
 
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Bukfan

Bukfan

"The law is wrong; I am right"
Yes, it's really cool! The likeness is very good. Well, done, David!
 
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Rekrab

Rekrab

Usually wrong.
Thanks you guys. And thanks for the photographer identifications, Roni.

I have three more paid orders to do on the deluxe copies with art. As of now, I'm ending the $20 a copy offer. I have a few more unsold copies, but I need to do some other work besides watercolors, like the art for the bibliography that Bill is publishing, and other literary tasks I've promised people, so I'm shutting down the sale of deluxe Charles Bukowski Spit In My Face copies for now. Anyone who sent me a PM reserving a copy and is on the list can still pay the $20 and get their copy, but they will need to wait a while. Like I said, other work calls. Thanks to everyone for being so patient.
 
Rekrab

Rekrab

Usually wrong.
The "New Buk photo" painting turned out okay. His shirt is kind of loud but what are you going to do? The watercolors have a mind of their own and I try not to get in the way.

Here's the scan:

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h185/barkerbooks/BukNewPhotoCropped.jpg

This will be mailed during the coming week. Thanks again for all your patience. Many of you paid for your copies in February and I'm still getting them done. But they turn out better if I take my time so I'll keep doing them at the rate of about one a week. Only two more to go, then I'm on to other projects, like the paintings for the biblio Bill Roberts is publishing.
 
Gerard K H Love

Gerard K H Love

Appreciate your friends
Yeah, before you know it those little paintings by David Barker will be fetching $500 to a thousand dollars on ebay.

That one for James is one of the best.
 
strangegirl

strangegirl

Very cool David, very cool indeed. glad you did that one. They are all exceptional, I have to say. And I am very proud to own one myself. The story I really enjoyed, don't know if I mentioned that before.
So I don't understand why people were upset that you wrote that. I liked it very much.
 
Rekrab

Rekrab

Usually wrong.
strangegirl said:
Very cool David, very cool indeed. glad you did that one. They are all exceptional, I have to say. And I am very proud to own one myself. The story I really enjoyed, don't know if I mentioned that before.
So I don't understand why people were upset that you wrote that. I liked it very much.
Click to expand...

Thanks, strangegirl. People were upset for two reasons that I know of. One was I was spilling some beans (as Richmond has said) that at least one person didn't want spilled. No real harm done there. They were harmless beans. The larger reason is that I acted on my own, without authorization from Bukowski nor -- here's the big one -- without the blessing of the chain of command in Bukowskidom. That's the people who think they are part of some power structure because they have sold some rare books of his or published a broadside of his or whatever. They were outraged that I hadn't conferred with each and every one of them but just crashed ahead and did it on my own. That, to them, was inexcusable. One of these charmers (thanks for that term, mjp) called me once or twice long distance and tried to intimidate me into withdrawing the book. I forget his words but not his voice; it was dead, like talking to a ghoul. I told him to piss off or something close to that. If I mentioned his name, many of you would recognize it, but I won't because I don't want the trouble. But you know this character.
 
Hosh

Hosh

hoshomccreesh.com
I thought the story was really well told--even verging on being too-forgiving/understanding. It's hard to understand the larger reaction of people outside the story--as it seems the small press has changed drastically since. Not that there's ever going to be anyone like Hank in the small press again, but I just can't see stuff like that happening today. By that I mean the small press, as a whole, caring about/defending someone so fervently...That's a much larger thread, probably. Hank certainly inspires some deep-seated & passionate support &, of course, outrage as well.

I'm also disappointed in that it is every bit YOUR experience as much as it was Bukowski's...& you should be allowed to tell your story without the peanut gallery (of which, I guess, even I'm now a member) chiming in or trying to stop you. There have surely been more egregeous name-dropping money-grabs in the past...& I appreciate you owning up to that part of it...but I can't imagine any being more carefully or tenderly rendered.

So thanks for it, Rekrab. I'm an admixture of a few emotions after reading it: both sorry it happened, but feel oddly fortunate to read about it...& think you were very fair in its telling.

& I surely hope the friend in the bathroom apologized to you...
 
Rekrab

Rekrab

Usually wrong.
Hosh, you're right -- the small press was a far more insular world in those days. The web has changed that I think. Now everything is fair game and people don't give much thought to what any one person says or does.

Although I did write the book to make money, once I set that course, my only thought was to be as honest about it as I could, and to resist the instinct to make myself the hero somehow. I felt I brought most of what happened on myself, and wanted to accept responsibility for it.
 
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