Originally painted for the show Friends and Family at Shaheen Modern and Contemporary in Cleveland back in 2007, I wanted to include works of great Ohio champions, and of course, Paul Newman was an Ohio Buckeye. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a movie classic, which helped to epitomize the era, but also for me, the homosocial relationship of the Newman and Robert Redford characters. Like so many in the ’60s (and myself now) I feel the counterculture revolution matters, and bringing my all to the characters I portray in my narratives that hopefully make the world a better place, I feel a real affinity to both Newman and Redford as they made their careers more than just being famous, but being incredible actors and filmmakers (and supporters) that create and portray content, like in Butch and Sundance, that have larger allegorical resonance where people can cathect to both the emotions and portrayals within the narrative to reflect back on their own real life and world in order for it to progress.

Although this is a sad ending of these characters, they “die with their boots on,” creating a tableau for the whole Last Judgment sequence of my exhibition, rising to heaven, but also, as the wonderful humans, Newman and Redford continued making fantastic works (and food, in Newman’s case, and Sundance et al. in Redford’s!) that make the world a better place.