Summer - 2002 The LockUp

More and more this wrestling theme appeals to me.

This morning I went to get a drawing to mail to a guy who had won it on eBay. It wasn’t there. I had a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach, as this had happened twice before, but with paintings. At first it seemed maybe things were just being misplaced. But now today I’m sure what happened to the paintings and this and other drawings.

Back during the beginning of the summer I got an email from a guy ‘billykid’ (who said he really liked my stuff and wanted to buy a print of everything. Said he would drive up from Atlanta and get them, and wanted to see ‘everything you’ve got’. Sure enough about eleven one night a car drives up and out gets this hot dude, and walks across the yard totally naked. I’m thinking ‘fucking cool’. He’s really personable, nice, and we spend the next two hours looking- him at my art, me…:-) He really likes all the frontal stuff, the bigger the dick the better. Then we get in bed and carry on just like you think we might. It’s really nice, totally. Next morning he’s in no hurry and we have a nice breakfast conversation, etc. He showers, then I shower, and around noon he gathers what he wants and asks me how much. I’m in the mood to give good prices, but he still wants a lot for a little. Finally we strike a bargain. He hands me the cash for a couple of drawings, framed and a couple of paintings. Then he gets back in his sports utility, still naked, and drives off and I’m left in the afterglow.

The glow has dimmed and gone. First those missing paintings, now the missing drawings. Now I’ve just been seriously going thru stuff and find a lot of my best work missing- the full frontals with big dicks. It’s taken me months to realize they were gone. Doing new art takes so much time, not much is left over for going thru the old. What’s just so confounding is how nice the guy was to be with, so intelligent as well as sensual. When he got my email with my suspicions a few weeks back (which are certainties now) and he asked me to read ‘A Separate Peace’ by John Knowles, implying that would assuage me of my doubts.

There’s nothing I know to do in a situation like this. I’m locked up. You could say it’s my fault for trusting a stranger. So I just wanted to tell the story. Who would think someone would like an artist’ work, go to meet him, have sex, charm thru breakfast and then steal his stuff while he's in the shower?

What’s hard for me is to separate business and friendship. All of you on my list I like to think of as friends before customers and this bad apple won’t spoil the barrel. But more and more we must all see that we as a society are hamstrung by the cheaters and free-riders among us. BillyKid didn’t leave me less able or interested in doing my art, but he did us all a disservice, in betraying the ‘family'. I’m not going to war about it, I’m just telling the story from my side. If you see any of the art I’ve listed as ‘robbed’ on my website, you’ll know it was ill gotten gain. How billy could enjoy looking at it, i can only wonder.

good luck in the jungle guys, :-)

p.s. i eventually found out billythekid's real name is Bill Hill and he did live in the Atlanta area. i filed a police report. the detective said unfortunately even knowing who did it was not enough to issue a search warrant as there were no witnesses to the theft. it seems if the artwork comes on the market only then can they make an arrest for possession of stolen property. so if you see any of the paintings and drawings listed as 'robbed' i hope you'll let me know. last i heard he'd changed his ebay identity and was trying to rip off other artists.