Obscuro Bezango Show 5

A large piece of foamboard in the front window was open for graphic expression by gallery attendees

Obscuro Bezango Show 4

By the time I arrived most of the setup work was already done, but there were plenty of last minute details to work out.

Mike "Worker Poet" Hill also showed up. Both of us were documenting each other documenting the show.

 Picking up the programs at Sir Speedy in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Just about done. But one detail remained. On the far end you see a flat display with a red cover over it. Tom asked me to remove that cover and roll it up ...

... And when I did he surprised me with a display of my own work!

For a few seconds I couldn't speak.

Obscuro Bezango Show 2

I was invited to Pittsburgh to be part of a mission-- to assist Obscuro Bezango show curator Tom Rehm in setting up the exhibit at the Future Tenant gallery.

It is interesting Pittsburgh International Airport is not named after anyone. I propose they name it Borpo Deets International Airport after the mysterious West Pennsylvania art guru who apparently was a mentor to Tom, Maximum Traffic and Buzz Buzzizyk.

Anyway, I noted that a large T-Rex skeleton greeted me at Borpo Deets International Airport. And somehow, feeling like an old Newave dinosaur as I dove into this project, this seemed appropriate.

Tom took me up to his sanctuary in rural Butler County, where he had an extensive collection of art on display by Traffic, Buzz, Deets, himself, family members and friends. It is an impressive gallery I was honored to visit. Here's a sample:
 

 The ceramic coin kiln!

 A jam by Max Traffic and Mike Hill

They say an unintentional skull can be seen on the left hand side

Morty Comix # 2530

 The distribution of Morty Comix # 2530 needs some explaining.

So I'm watching this super-epic film from 1962 called How the West Was Won. I have a Random House book that was released with the movie. Picked this monograph up long ago at some sale.

As I was viewing this Space Age celebration of Manifest Destiny (the movie ends with freeway traffic and urban sprawl portrayed as a good thing), I told myself I would send the next Morty Comix to the first city uttered by any character in the story.
 

And that city turned out to be Pittsburgh. Jimmy Stewart, in the role Linus Rawlings, Mountain Man, utters, "I kinda itch to get to Pittsburgh. I ain't seen a city for a long time. I aim to whoop it up a little."

Pittsburgh. Home to the amazing Wayno. A city that has been showing the art of Maximum Traffic. and a hop and schlep from the home of one of my favorite artists of the Newave Comix era, Mike Hill.

I am not a big fan of Stewart, but there have been a few movies where I could tolerate him. The Shootist, Shenandoah, Rope. I think I like him in those since he wasn't playing his normal Jimmy Stewart character. The guy could act if the studios gave him a chance.

Since his given name was James I sought out James Street in Pittsburgh. And once again Google's street view assisted me in finding a good home for a Morty Comix. Since they produce a product using more creativity than most, I selected a trophy store as the next random art recipient.

I have a lot of ancestors on both sides who lived in, are buried in, passed through the colony/state of Pennsylvania on their generational trek out here to the West Coast. One of my ancestors was supposedly converted to the Quaker faith by Penn himself. His grandson, another forefather of mine, ran off and wed a Shawnee woman, and became a frontiersman in Virginia. So the Quaker strain in my family was short-lived.
 

Off to the Keystone State for you, little one. I've been to Philadelphia but one day I'd love to visit Pittsburgh.