Okay, this is a tease. I’m back working on a tequila painting as I said I would be, but Deb and I are moving to Gold Canyon, Arizona. The effort to gather all of our stuff and get our present home ready for its new owner has dominated my (and Deb’s) time.
I am working on a painting that is probably 80% finished, and it’s difficult for me to look at it and not be able to paint. Not only that, it is a real challenge: not one, but three tequila bottles. (That’s a hint.) Once we’re totally in our temporary digs I may be able to squeeze a few hours into it, and maybe even complete it before we move into our new home toward the end of September. It’s another 16” x 20” acrylic on canvas, but that’s all I’m saying. Stay tuned. I’ll reveal it the moment it’s signed.
The process of getting my own (or anyone’s) artwork to final giclėe printing is an amazing and intense process. After the work is photographed with a gazillion megapixel camera, it goes under incredible scrutiny at the next stop: the printer.
One afternoon in the late 1990s a number of my friends and I dropped into a tequila bar in Tempe called “Palapa’s” for a shot of tequila. We were sipping a shot of Patron añejo, which at the time for us was the “real deal.” We said to the bartender, “This is pretty good, huh?” He replied, “It’s okay.” We were a bit surprised, and asked, “So, what do YOU like?” He walked back with a bottle of Jose Cuervo Reserva de la Familia. We said, “Cuervo? Really?” He poured us all a shot at $16 a copy. It was dark, looking more like a fine whiskey or Cognac. We said, “Did he say this is Tequila?” We studied it. We smelled it. And then we took a sip. Again we said, “DID HE SAY THIS IS TEQUILA?” We’d never had anything quite like it before. It was smooth, with a sweet caramel undertone and near cognac flavor. That’s when it all started.
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