Saturday, February 6, 2010

The Geographically Ignorant Blues

I started working on a new paint project tonight. It's a depiction of Robert Johnson and the Devil at the cross roads. For those unfamiliar with the tale, and also too lazy to click and read the wiki link, Robert Johnson was a 1930's blues musician who was rumoured to have made a pact with Satan in order to be come the best blues guitarist the world had seen.

The picture itself is going to end up having a 'Western Shootout' feel, I think, along with being rife with historical innacuracy. First of all, reading further into the legend, this deal was allegedly made at midnight, but for some reason, I always picture it taking place at high noon, with the sun blazing overhead.

The other issue I've discovered is that, being less-than-well travelled, I have no freaking idea what the Missississipi delta (where the deal went down - The corner of Highway 61 and Highway 49 to be precise) looks like, let alone what it looked like in the 1930's. I have to stop myself from making it look like the California desert. I guess to me, it just makes sense that if you're making a pact with Satan, it's going to be hot as hell out and my imagination is merely reflecting that string of logic.

Incidentally, as I twisted the dial on the hi-fi looking for some good, creative 'mood music' (The Dock was NOT doing it for me tonight) I happened upon CBC Radio One who just happened to be playing 'Saturday Blues Night'. How's that for kismet? I think public radio gets a bad rap.

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