For as long as I can remember, my parents have been antique dealers. My longest job was at one of the antique malls they rented space in. All of my friends were older people. That means I have lost a lot of these friends to death. I touched on this with my voice essay on Gladys. She started as a ghost of a friend. Same with Haze Lit. Gary died shortly after I left for residential treatment, just like “Kathie God”. I just kept seeing him as this stoner guy, which he very much wasn’t in real life. I laughed myself to sleep talking to him. He’d throw a joint on the ground and say, “Haze Lit- Zow.”
It was so funny to me. He eventually became Haze Lit. Not Gary.
Haze Lit is tall and fat. He’s a handsome mixed man, and I’m not talking race. He is half giant and half leprechaun. He is a player, although he always pines for Hella Goode. His mom is Lottie Arcati, the town tarot card reader. I told a worker this synopsis at my Whitewater group home, and he said, “Make him roll doobies with four leaf clovers.”
Eventually, he gets into heroin.
Not good.
In this painting, he is on Ozempic because he is actually skinny here. He is normally far larger.
His best friend is Owen, who is mentally disabled. Haze sneaks him out of his group home to go on adventures.
Why the smears? You have to wait until the tenth painting. Stay tuned.
This one is on the Arts for All WI website under the name Zelda Bean. OR you can visit the Carnelian Gallery in Madison, where this will hang until September 27th. It’s 16 in by 20 in. Acrylic paint with acrylic paint pens. It could be yours for $300, and 30 percent of the proceeds go to helping disabled artists.