Starving Artist

Image of the Week: January 29 - Feburary 4

2012-01-29T16:27:00.003-07:00

"White House Ruin"
Canyon de Chelly, Arizona

Chronology: The Anasazi Culture in the Four Corners area of the Southwest.
When the Navajo discovered these ancient cliff dwellings centuries ago they named the ancient people who built them 'Anasazi', meaning 'The Ancient Ones'.
The Anasazi are the ancestors of the Pueblo People occupying pueblo settlements chiefly in New Mexico and Arizona.

Image of the Week: January 21 -28

2012-01-24T20:37:00.005-07:00

"Ritual Masks"

Flux

2012-01-13T21:20:00.007-07:00

Flux....my keyword for 2012...things will come in and things will go out. I'll be riding a wave of flux throughout the year. It's time to go forward. I've spent time massaging new ideas, and looking forward to surprises. Still, I hope to wrap up some older "in progress" paintings that are ready for and deserve completion. I'm always developing Claude's Art Works on the web with additions of art, images, and items of interest. I wish all a great 2012!

"Let it Snow"

2011-12-13T23:29:00.005-07:00

Eighteen inches and more on the way. Winter is here in the high mountains of northern Arizona. Sweep...Shovel...and feed the Snowbirds. As you can see, just a old trash can turned upside down does the job.
They'll be warmer with full crops huddling together on their perches through the 12º night.

Pearl Harbor | 70th Anniversary

2011-12-08T20:28:00.005-07:00

70th Anniversary of attack on Pearl Harbor

In June 2002, a day before I embarked with my Navy son on his ship, he took me to the USS Arizona Memorial. That next day on his ship we glided past it and the USS Missouri "The Mighty Moe" on whose decks the Japanese surrender was signed. These memorials represented the beginning and the end of World War II. I would glide by these two memorials two more times in the next few years. I remember seeing the oil from the USS Arizona still slowly bubbling to the surface and names of all the sailors on the wall inside. An amazing experience. The digital image on the left is my humble contribution of remembrance.

Dreamworlds

2011-11-15T21:46:00.017-07:00

Arch of Septimus Severus : Khoms, Libya

I enjoy talking about wild and interesting adventures we all experience in our dreamworlds. Years ago I kept a journal of my most interesting ones and would read over them sometimes in analytical amusement and some dreams actually inspired art projects too.

"A Dream Within a Dream" by Edgar Allen Poe First published in March 31st 1849, is a favorite poem.

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow -
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
.......Edgar Allen Poe

Poe questioned the way one can distinguish between reality and fantasy. He was reflecting on feelings about his life at the time, dramatizing his confusion in watching the important things in his life slip away.

Unlike Poe, there are many important things in life I haven't allowed to slip away, yet his poem sumed up my life in which I am still pursuing my creative dreams. As a fun project I included myself in these dreamlike images culled from my morgue, collections, photos, and artwork.

"Fill'er Up!" Las Vegas, Nevada 1940

Buffalo Hunters and Warriors of the Great Plains

Sphinx and Khufu Pyramid on the Giza Plateau, Egypt 1897

Eternity on the Midnight Express

Claude's 1965 VW Bus

2011-10-11T15:57:00.024-07:00

My 1965 VW Bus is 46 yrs. old now (2011) I adopted it in 1976. In 1984 I finished restoration and gave it a new paint job in 1986. My kids are posing in front of it in 1990. The dogger's are in animal heaven, black one lived to be over 16 and the kids aren't kids anymore. We all had a lot of fun memories traveling and camping with it over the years. Although there is only 77K miles on the engine I haven't driven it in several years and so this summer I began the second restoration cycle and prep work for it's new life.

History: Long Stories are always the best!
First it was a 'roadkill' that broke down near Parks, Arizona and the owner, thinking the engine was blown sold it to a friend of mine, and then resumed his trip back to California. Later examination found that the points were the only thing wrong with the engine. My friend also had a '65 VW Bus but with a high mileage 1600cc engine and asked me to put the 'roadkill' engine in his bus and he would give me 'roadkill' and his old worn out 1600cc engine. A great deal as I had a 1959 Double Side Door with a lot of rust and a old high mileage 1300cc engine that was on it's last leg. My '59'er was originally imported from Germany to North Carolina before finding itself in Arizona, but many years in NC caused it to rust out badly...very badly. I gave the '59er away to a guy for a storage shed but kept the chrome-moly full length luggage rack and the Westfalia camper interior wood benches and fixtures.

The '65 'Roadkill' sat for several years waiting the for the day that I had enough money to bring it back to life. That day came in 1984, eight years and about eight miles from where it originally broke down and eventually became mine. The bus was moved four different times during those eight years and served as extra storage space.I spent two months prepping it while Burk Franke rebuilt the 1600cc engine for it. Before I installed the new engine I was lucky to stumble upon and buy a rusted junker 1966 Deluxe for a hundred bucks with a 1 Ton Transaxle in it that I installed. (B/W Photo Right: 1983)

So, now I'm into the 2nd restoration, which is pretty much going through the whole vehicle again, especially restoring the wooden benches and closet panel that were built 52 years ago (when the rusted out '59 VW Westfalia Bus was new). I replaced the rear luggage compartment floor with a custom fit cut wooden stained and polycoated one. We are now ready for the rubber replacement for the all doors, windows and rear engine compartment. We're also ordering new molded horsehair seats for the front and I'm having new custom fabricated seat cushions made for the passenger rear seats. Next will be the mechanical work: New air ducting, engine tuneup, ect.

We'll hit the road together in the summer of 2012 for San Diego. My son in the maroon shirt will pamper it and I can already picture the top rack stacked with surf boards and headed to nice waves. Some heads will turn as it passes by. Our family heirloom and the circle of great memories is unbroken.

A Journey to Antiquity

2010-10-05T16:14:00.019-07:00

I've had this vintage photograph in my collection 40 years. I have always wondered who these people were enjoying a day at the Sphinx and Giza Pyramids over 100 years ago. So, needing a break from painting, I put my genealogical hat on and I set out on a journey in time.
So please, if you will, follow me through time, history, and discovery on a 'Journey to Antiquity'

Art & History

2010-08-20T14:50:00.007-07:00

I was revisiting my stored artwork files and pulled out this graphite/colored pencil drawing I did of an old building in Garland Prairie, Arizona in 1972. It was near the forest service road but all alone in a pasture of several acres. I always figured it was part of an old abandoned airfield. It was torn down sometime in the late 1980's.
Curiosity compelled me to go online and see if any information might be found on these old airfields. These were the early day Air Mail Routes across the United States in the 1930's and 1940's. Charles Lindbergh was one of the first air mail pilots of this era.
According to an interesting website: Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields: Northern Arizona : Paul Freeman. On his website is the description of the old Winona Airfield that was part of the Los Angeles - Amarillo Airway. I image that this old airfield was part of that airway as the building has LA - A on the roof identifying it as such. So this airfield may have been a part of the Los Angeles - Amarillo airways in the mid 1930's. These sites were for emergency situations and provided aviation fuel and emergency supplies. I sent a query email including a photo of my drawing to the website owner, and he believes that the site wasn't an airfield but an airway beacon house for aircraft flying the airway route.

The Past Through Photos

2010-01-13T19:36:00.017-07:00

I've been going through my old photo collection of 19th century 'cabinet cards' and extensive folders of my photography. I've used a couple to do this photoshopped image.

The gentleman from the 1890's photo is from my 'cabinet card' collection. The photo was taken by the studio of Weatherford & Swan in Jackson, Mississippi, his name was not scribed on the photo. He's dressed in his finest for the photo and it worked great to be posed inside the south entrance to the Old Bartlett Hotel in historical Jerome, Arizona. His hat really intrigued me because of it's style, probably the latest. The small foliage inside the doors are Paradise Trees which grow prolifically around the Verde Valley, even at the elevation of Jerome. Jerome has always been a favorite visiting place for me over 35 years and the inspiration of several illustrations and paintings (see my painting: Ghost Night in Jerome Portfolio: A Journey. Just scroll down). In the 1970's not many people were living there and you could roam all over the old Phelps Dodge copper mining town. Today many artisian's, craftsmen, galleries and storeowners populate the town. Great place to visit.

More: Digital Art and Photography

Keyhole Sink Petroglyphic Site Hike

2009-05-06T16:08:00.025-07:00

"Hunters" - 1981 ©Claude Marion Shawbell III
Inspired by Keyhole Sink Petroglyphic Site (old Rock Tank)

I've hiked many times over thirty years to Rock Tank, now called Keyhole Sink. The U.S. Forest Service took over the maintenance, preservation and protection of the site fifteen years ago. This was great, because vandals have defaced many ancient sites over the past decades in northern Arizona. The site was a hunting and occupation site of the Cohonina People: Basketmaker III Period who roamed this area of nothern Arizona up to and including the Pueblo II Period. Read More about this site at: Northern Arizona Petrogylphic Site Treks. See also: Chronology of the Ancient Southwest Cultures