Chris Ortiz

These paintings were produced by Chris Ortiz, one of my people at ArtWorks. The brushwork and marks are all his, with very little intervention. I chose the colors and developed all the procedures that allow these images to come to life.

The Big Switcharoo

For the last several years I've been producing oil paintings on gallery-wrapped canvas. While lovely most of the time, this combination resulted in far too many quality control issues. As of a few days a ago, I've switched to mixed media (acrylic, watercolor and water-soluble crayon) on home-made panels in an effort to increase overall quality and provide myself with a larger number of creative options. Only time will tell if this was a smart decision. The resulting paintings should be quite different and hopefully better than anything I've done in the past. I'll post some images the moment they become available.

FUBAR in Prescott (again)

I sometimes remind myself that I am only average at ruining my life and the lives of those I love. My failures and missteps are at best ordinary and not worth mentioning. My brother N, on the other hand, is in the middle of another one of his addiction cycles and if things go badly the best he can hope for is a prison sentence. I don't want to talk about worst case scenarios, but anything is possible in the world of alocoholism, automobiles, firearms and knives. Things have gotten dark, very dark, in Prescott. A phone call could come at any moment, a call that could change everything. We sit here in Tucson, not knowing, not able to do anything. That's the way it is. It makes me want to reflect on my own life and the choices I've made. I am thankful that I can drink a glass of wine and go to work in the morning. My brother cannot. He must choose between sobriety or death and I'm not sure he even has a choice.

Gallery Openings, Art Sales and Other Silliness

I've been an artist for a long time and have been selling my work for several years. I have no idea why people buy art, or why they buy my art. Tonight I went to a gallery opening for Bill Dubin, a watercolorist and new addition to the Mo's Gallery art scene. We hit it off immediately (a fellow insane person, willing to paint using the world's least forgiving medium, watercolor). The show was great and very cohesive. Lots of lively pictures of trolleys, including the ones down on 4th Avenue here in Tucson. Most of the people who showed up were friends of Nathan (the manager) or other Mo's people and their affiliates. Reminds me of the show I had at Alliance Bank, where everyone who showed up was a friend or an acquaintance. Unless you're way up there in the art scene, it's hard to attract the kind of unknown buyers who will purchase a painting opening night. Paintings usually sell prior to the opening or afterward with the possible exception of a very strong piece where the buyer doesn't want to lose the piece to someone else. To make a long story short, Bill didn't sell anything. I hope he will, but the art market has been very flat lately (along with just about every sector in George Bush's economy). I haven't sold anything in quite a while.

Until tonight. That's right, I sold a little oil painting at Bill Dubin's show. Ridiculous. Absurd. Painfully unpredictable.

But that's how it goes in this business. You just never know.

2nd Street Tree House

This is one of the paintings I sold at the 2nd Street School auction. I made the school over $800! Cool.

Fajitas

My Neighbor, the Hedonist

Tom, my next door neighbor, has given up totally on physical health and prefers instead to bask in the glow of cigar smoke and very, very good wine. He has three bottles of Velvet Glove in his fridge and I am determined to share one with him, perhaps over the best f*cking ribeyes you’ve ever had. Tom is the operations manager for El Charro. He works six days a week, doesn’t keep up with his landscaping, and travels to California to taste wine with the likes of Doug Shafer who Tom says used to live in Tucson and who seems to know Tom and vice versa, allowing Tom to visit one of the finest wineries in Napa and try out past vintages of Hillside Select Cabernet. Needless to say, I’m very happy to know Tom, if only tangentially, over the cinder block wall of our shared back yards. I recently had the opportunity to trade him a bottle of Boarding Pass for a bottle of Molly Dooker, again through the chink in our shared wall, while sipping some Blue Moon Zinfandel from one of Tom’s Riedel glasses that he purchased at cost (the wine and the glass). He told me to set the glass on the wall when I was finished. That’s just the kind of guy Tom is: generous, and fatalistic. I love him. We have nothing in common but a shared interest in really awesome red wine, which apparently is more than enough.

I love my neighborhood.

Two More

Boarding Pass Shiraz 2005

I don't want to share this one with you, because I want all of this wine for myself. Here it is, people, the absolute best deal on Shiraz you will ever, ever, ever find. This one even beats Marquis Phillips, and that's saying something.

Wonderful dark, rich extraction with a nose of black fruit and smoky, toasty oak. In the mouth the wine is super smooth with profound mouthfeel. Powerful, balanced flavors of blueberry, cassis, smoke, pepper, you name it. Exactly like Mollydooker, but half the price. The best red wine deal on the planet. Seriously. Find it now.

My score: a solid 92 points.

The fact that you can get this for $15 is insane. It's worth $40 and would beat many $50 wines in a blind tasting.

The Paradox of Relationship

Amazing that we choose to be with people who cannot fulfill our most basic emotional needs, then wait around for them to change. An insane paradox, yet one which appears to be universal. Those who remain in relationship must overcome this paradox. They must realize that their partner cannot become the parent who failed them, and that no one else can, either. There is no relief to be found, here or elsewhere. With acceptance comes freedom, and the ability to grieve the losses of childhood.

Canelo Reverie

Three Saints Syrah 2005

Three Saints is my new favorite winery. Their Cabernet Sauvignon is to die for, so I decided to try their Syrah.

In the glass the wine is viscous and nearly opaque dark purple. The nose is explosive with black fruit, cherry jam and chocolate/espresso. Swirling the wine in the glass produces sluggish pools of extracted, resinous glycerin that slide slowly downward, hinting at the mouthfeel to follow. In the mouth the wine has the consistency of half and half, with smooth, integrated tannins that completely coat the palette. Flavors of blackberry jam and milk chocolate explode and then smolder for a very long time. Acids and sugars are in profound balance and the high alcohol content (15.1%) is thoroughly hidden beneath massively extracted fruit. This wine is very hedonistic and worth every penny. An amazingly rich wine and a perfect example of new world, fruit-bomb Syrah. I can't believe how decadent this wine is. Not for red wine newbies. A serious f*cking Syrah from Santa Ynez, made by seriously talented people.

My score: 91

Where I'm Coming From

One of the hardest things in life is to go on believing in yourself even though you know you're full of shit.

Chateau Recougne Bordeaux Superieur 2003

I recently attended a free Bordeaux tasting at Cata Vinos. It was an amazing experience, since I don't drink much Bordeaux and have been on the lookout for an affordable bottle that doesn't suck. Well, look no further, all you wanna-be French wine people. Here it is, the screaming deal.

Chateau Recougne Bordeaux Superieur 2003 is an absolutely classic example of red Bordeaux. I believe it is a roughly fifty-fifty blend of Cabernet Franc and Merlot, although this might change from year to year. On the nose the wine smells of dark fruit, earth, mushrooms and just a hint of barnyard. In the mouth I tasted dark fruit, leather, earth and savory spices with a nice balance of acidity and sweetness. Nicely integrated tannins, not harsh at all, and a modest finish without any bitterness. A commendable wine containing many of the components you might look for in a Bordeaux. Not an American Koolaid wine. This one brings the funk, but does so nicely.

You can get it for $15 at Cata Vinos.

My score: 87

Cheers!

I have found that, creatively speaking, the safe choice is always the wrong choice.

The Cata Vinos Crew

Sitting with Yvonne and Jo Ann late in the evening after tasting through a dozen Zinfandels, narrowing it all down to five decent wines for the shop, two of which I'll certainly be buying for myself, and thinking to myself that this is really cool, being part of a handful of people that Yvonne has taken in as her crew of confidants, people she trusts enough to help her pick the best of the best in the under-fifteen-dollar category. A great selection of Zins, all decent, but we found a couple we really liked. Can't wait to share some of them with you, dear reader, once Yvonne gets them in. One in particular, the Clos La Chance, was spectacular. We even tasted it against Valley of the Moon, which I've liked in the past, and found the Clos La Chance to be vastly superior. A $30 wine in a $15 bottle. Wow.

I'll write a full review of it soon.

-t

Marquis Philips Shiraz 2006

This amazing wine is all the more amazing since it clocks in around $15. Produced in the grand tradition of Mollydooker (in fact, originally produced by the same folks) this wine is the quintessential Aussie Shiraz. On the nose the wine is explosive with smoke, blackberry, blueberry, pepper and oak. In the mouth the wine is very smooth with integrated tannins. Flavors include blueberry pie, vanilla, blackberry and the kind of leather they used to use to wrap old wooden trunks bound for far away lands. Amazingly balanced, with profound mouthfeel. The shocking 15.5% alcohol is hidden behind perfectly extracted fruit flavors. Almost as good as Mollydooker Shiraz, and about $10 less. Amazing. Get some now!

My score: 91 (incidentally, Robert Parker rates this one a 92)

Did I say get some now?

The Retard You Signed Up For

Sometimes I don't know how we've survived. Without the continuing help of others, this little family would have blown apart years ago. I wish I could be a person who was wildly successful in the world. I've never been. It's amazing I've even got a wife and kids. It's amazing I'm not still stuck in some lonely reality, somewhere far, far from where I am.

I try to be generous of spirit, but sometimes I wonder who I am, or what I am doing. I spend my days taking care of retarded adults who have nothing. I get paid very little to do this. I am really, really good at it. My people love me. I am the leader of the freaks. It is the most unglamorous job a person could have, perhaps on the level of garbage man or janitor (although those jobs pay better).

I'm not complaining. I'm trying to tell you that I've arrived. This is the end of my long quest to make it in the world. This is it. I go to gatherings of other fathers who have real jobs with real responsibilities. They talk about things that sound respectable, things that sound important. Then they ask me what I do, and I tell them, and they stare at me blankly, not knowing what to say. What can they say? What do you say to someone who seems so intelligent and helpless? Certainly this weirdo is making poor choices. Certainly he is resisting some greater level of personal involvement in the world.

I guess when it comes right down to it, I'm more of a retarded person than a normal person. I have real deficiencies in my ability to relate to people. I used to hang out on the periphery of social events, afraid of participating. I used to regularly put my foot in my mouth, embarrassing myself or others. I never seemed to get it when someone liked me or wanted to be with me. I missed any number of opportunities for relationships with great women who simply couldn't get through to me. I preferred (and still do) the company of trees and rocks, and the internal monologue of my own restless mind. Does this make me an artist, or does this make me insane?

And nothing really changes, although my poor wife has tried for ten years to train me to become a reasonable person to be around. I'm still largely the same as I always was. Even when I'm relating to others, it's largely part of some creative process that starts and ends inside me.

The people who like me are able to put up with all the heaviness, the desire to go deep into disturbing conversations, the willingness to freak out and be crazy. Not just anyone can tolerate such bizarre behavior. Most people have better things to do, or they simply don't want relationships where real things get talked about, where the boundaries of safety are frequently crossed, where mistakes get made and laughed at, where every day is an attempt to simply rise above the desire to GET THE F*CK OUT OF HERE AND AWAY FROM YOU, anywhere but here, no offense, I'm just crazy.

Thank you for reading, and thank you for being my friend. I know it isn't easy.

Taft Street Pinot Noir 2006

Okay all you Pinot people, here is your screaming deal from the 2006 vintage. This modest wine from Sebastopol, California is hands down the only $15 Pinot Noir I've tried that allows for time travel the way a $50 Pinot might (minus some thunder, of course). The nose brings to mind mummified cherries from the Ming Dynasty with the dust and dirt of old trails long grown over. In the mouth the wine is fruit-forward with dried cranberries, strawberry jam and sour cherries wrapped around a core of dried leaf litter and old leather work gloves. Acidity and sweetness are in wonderful balance and the finish, while modest, comes back to haunt the palate with notes of nativity incense and well-worn wooden furniture. An altogether amazing achievement, considering the price. I catch myself thinking about this wine when I'm out of the house, which for me is a sure sign of the underlying subtlety and quality. Only Pinot does this, and only when the fruit and terrestrial components are in concert with one another. You can find this wine at Sunflower Market on Speedway. Avoid the 2005 vintage if possible, as it was a bit overdone.

My score: 88 (with another 4 invisible points for serious time travel)

Enjoy this wine with fatty, flavorful foods. Avoid heavy, sweet, acidic sauces and chocolate, all of which will dampen this wine. You want some fat in there to carry this wine to that secret 92 point rating.

Cheers!