This is the only painting in the series that I actually started before I decided to do the library show - and because I had spent the last few years making masks for a different show, this was the first canvas I had painted in a long, long time. It’s a portrait of my partner, Bill, in a Halloween costume that we made together; he is the wizard of grandeur and mystery, and his name is Morihar!
When the good people at Cook Memorial Library asked me if I would be interested in showing some work, it was this painting that gave me the confidence to say yes, even though I hadn’t done anything but make masks for years. Morihar reminded me how much I like painting on canvas, and convinced me that I might be able to do it without embarrassing myself!
Connections:
One of the mice in Ghost Snacks carries a replica of Morihar’s staff, and Morihar himself is one of the customers standing on line in Affordable Solutions to Unusual Problems. There is a more oblique connection, too; Shannon Hears the Music is actually a self-portrait, in my own Halloween costume. Shannon and Morihar were out on the town together for Halloween 2021, so the two portraits (while pretty different from each other) are actually something of a pair.
