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IMAGES BY DIRK

PART I

> Part I <|> Part II <|> Part III <

Here are copies of photographs of my artwork, saved over the years as Polaroids, snapshots, copies of newspaper & magazine pages. Some of the shots are a little fuzzy. Sorry! I never dreamed of publishing them! It also never occurred to me to keep records, so my recollection of the background of the paintings, when & why I painted them, who bought them, or who I gave them to, are as hazy as some of the images. They are mostly in chronological order, more or less. I have probably made a few mistakes when guessing the years. But they're close guesses.

I was just out of college, in the early'50s, when I started signing my drawings & paintings as "Dirk." Those were the days of one-name Gay artists, like "Quaintance" & "Etienne" & "Kris." One of my classmates & coffee-buddies at the U of U was a very sexy student from Holland, Dirk Van Der Elst. I decided that my pen-name would be Dirk Vanden & my nom-de-paintbrush would be "Dirk." For several years it was just a pseudonym; I was called "Dick." It had been a very common nick-name during all my school years. But to me, dick was a cock, a prick, a man-handle, but not a good artist's signature. But "Dirk" is more memorable. Anyway, when I moved in with Herb, he decided I would be Dirk. He called it my "chosen" not "given" name. We both assumed that my career as a writer would continue & it would be less confusing if I used the same name for everything.

"Deeper & Deeper..." a digital image by Dirk

Sabra's Rose: If you'll pop over to www.ImagesByDirk.com, you'll find the original digital image (above) of this painting in the first group of "Up Close & Personal" floral note cards. When Sabra Hill, one of my co-workers, saw the red-red rose named "Deeper & Deeper," she wanted an enlargement 22"x28" to fit above the fireplace in her new home. (A good Christian mother of 3 kids, she has a tattoo of a rose on her shoulder.) That color would match her sofa & love-seat & carpet. The digital image couldn't be enlarged that much without its pixels showing, so I offered to paint it in oils for her & she accepted. She gave it to herself & her family for Christmas, 2006. It features my favorite oil color: Rose Madder:

I have recently made poster-size copies of the piece as Christmas gifts. They are available, printed on demand. Please ask for current prices & sizes from Dirk@DirkVanden.net

Now back to the beginning. One of my earliest paintings was a self-portrait:

"The Flower Died" - oil on canvas, 1959

The first part of my Gay life was mostly unhappy & I tried to express those feelings in "The Flower Died." For years it hung on my parents' living room wall, in Salt Lake City - which will tell you something about my relationship with them & their perception - or lack of it - with me. They were Mormons.

"Sad Clown" - oil on canvas board - 36"x24" - was painted in Hollywood, early 60s. One of several clown paintings, but the only good photograph. My life felt like a circus, after all the fun stuff had left town. I sold that for $35 to someone who felt much the same.

Then I met Winn & everything changed.

I have a BFA in Theatre Art from the UofU in SLC. A few years after graduating, I was directing Children's Theater at The Eaglet Theater in Sacramento, 1962, when Winson Strickland came to tryouts to read for Prince Charming. Unfortunately, he couldn't act at all, even though he certainly looked the part, so I gave him the job of stage manager, which he performed perfectly for several years, first in Sacramento & then in Sherman Oaks, at the Valley Music Theater, for my children's theater, both places. He was an excellent artist in his own right & painted lots of our scenery. Somewhere in between, the inevitable happened & we became lovers. In Hollywood, he was the hit of the year at The Gauntlet, a Gay-motorcycle-club bar, on Melrose, when we moved South to try to get him into The Movies!

"Winn" - oil on burlap - 1967

He looked great in black leather!

This was a life-size black & white acrylic "mural" on masonite that hung on the wall of the Gauntlet playroom several years, until one of his many fans bought it.

We also started patronizing the Gay baths in Glendale, bartering my drawings in their advertising for free admission to the baths. We had an "open" relationship by then. Winn was very popular at the baths - like a flower being followed by a swarm of hungry bees!

This was the logo for a bar called The Jaguar by the same great guys who gave you The Gauntlet, Dale & Lucky. The framed original hung in the bar & was featured in their advertising, on cocktail napkins, etc., for years.

In 1967, Winn got a job with a Hollywood scene-shop, painting scenery for one of the shows in Las Vegas & we eventually moved there - where he fell in love with one of the dancers at Caesar's Palace & asked out of our relationship. It was actually a relief to have it be over without any fights or recriminations. We wished each other well.The connection between us had stopped working. We were from very different generations. He was a handsome Hippie Swinger (a woman in Sacramento claimed that he had sired her baby on one of his trips home &, in fact, she & the baby & her current boyfriend all moved in with us in Glendale for a horrible month or so until tests eventually proved the kid wasn't his & she moved out, but I understood her reason for wanting to hook him! He was gorgeous & could have anyone he wanted, male or female) & I was an average-looking Gay Ex-Mormon Beatnik. From Las Vegas, I moved to Sacramento, where my folks were living at the time, then to San Francisco, after I met Herb Finger, who looked enough like me to be my brother. In fact, many people asked if we were twins.

We had a "Gay brotherly" relationship for 18 years.

Trying to coax Frankie to join us.

A FAMILY PORTRAIT: Dirk & Ernie & Frankie & Herb at home in Citrus Heights, mid-70s.

In 1969, Herb & I visited Southern California on a vacation, & I was asked by Dale & Lucky to do a mural for their new bar, The Arena. I called it "The Cosmic Cock" & painted it with acrylic house-paint on the back wall of the bar. It took almost a week. I did the life-size figures while Herb painted & stylized the cock. Look closely & you'll see both our astrological signs therein. I still have no idea what the painting means!

All I had with me was a Polaroid camera.

An illustration that never made it into the published version of TWIN ORBS ("EXILE IN PARADISE") 1969

In San Francisco, living with Herb, up on Buena Vista Terrace, overlooking the Castro, "Frenchy," of LeSalon asked me to draw the covers for my own books & several other of Frenchy's Gay Line's early publications.

Repeating my successful gambit of exchanging advertising art for passes & beer in L. A., when I moved to San Francisco I approached the owners of DAVE'S BATHS for free passes in return for artwork. We got our free beer at THE STUD. My paintings hung in both.

"Water boy" in oils, 24"x36". hung in Dave's TV lounge for many years.

"The Nicest Things Happen" - pencil on poster board. This was at first an ad in the program of a Drag production of Hello Dolly. It drew so much comment that they made it into a 20"x30" poster and gave one with each admission, on Christmas, 1972. I have heard that the poster had been colored with markers, framed & hung, in several Gay homesteads in northern California.

Detail: "The Nicest Things Happen"

"SMILES ARE MADE AT DAVE'S" Newspaper & Magazine ad - Pencil on paper - 1973

Detail: "Smiles are Made..."

"Assorted Fruit Wreath" - Christmas ad, 1973, Pointillism - ink dots on paper

The same company that owned the Dave's Baths chain also owned several bars in Washington & in Nevada. The VIP Club was near Reno.

"VIP COUNTRY" - pencil on poster board, 1973. They made posters of this one, too.

"EMBRACE" - oil on canvas - 24x30 - 1970. It hung briefly at The Stud & sold quickly for $75

In Sacramento, around 1971 - '73, a friend whom I had directed in Sacramento's first all-black production, Raisin in the Sun, Ernie Brown, had just opened his own Gay dance-bar, "Ernie's Place" in West Sacramento. He asked me to do a "signature painting" for over the bar.

"Ernie's Cowboy" Acrylic on masonite panel, hung behind the bar, along with other of my paintings or drawings, all for sale.

"SPACED OUT" - Acrylic Mural on masonite panel which hung on the wall behind the dance area. Overhead I hung a mobile made of variously sized styrofoam balls painted to look like planets, suspended by black thread, invisible against the black ceiling. The Planets moved constantly, especially when dancers were dancing. Under blacklight it looked like 3-D. The Rolling Stones' "2000 LIGHT YEARS FROM HOME" was on the juke box. We called it a "mindfuck!"

Ernie's Xmas Card, 1973.

Look closely at the picture; both framed paintings for sale, plus the cowboy, are mine & the book on the cash register, also for sale, is: I WANT IT ALL.

> Part I <|> Part II <|> Part III <

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