Art Opening: The Oldest Profession/Paintings from Boystown [] Henry Vermillion

THE OLDEST PROFESSION—-PAINTINGS FROM BOYSTOWN

By Henry Vermillion

A man walks into a bar and sits down at a table. (Sounds like Henny Youngman back in the old days?)  A woman comes over and sits down. “Hi, Cowboy,” she says. “Buy me a drink?” And so on…

Behind those clichés and others like them lie a thousand jokes, tall tales and, of course, real life stories. A dozen or so of them are suggested by the new paintings at the Galeria San Antonio,( located on one side of the Parrochia San Antonio) in a show called “Boystown”.

The show opens Friday, August 19, 5 to 9 pm. (Some of the preliminary studies for these pictures can still be seen at the drawing show currently up at the Blue Moon Gallery at Calzada de la Estación #151.)

The works are based on old souvenir photographs taken by house photographers in clubs in “Zonas de Tolerancia” or Red- Light Districts in Mexican border towns, where prostitution is legal, and is largely supported by visiting cowboys, college students, and other American men. While I had known about these places a long time ago, when I years later came across a collection of these souvenir photos, I was struck by how funny many were, how sad some were, how foolish, and how human they all were. I began to draw, and then to paint these folks.  One picture led to another. Political correctness had no home here.  Good old boys came to dance, drink, and have a good old time, to get away from the small -town strictures they grew up and lived with. For some young men, it was a rite of passage, as in one of the paintings in the show. For others, single or married, it was for uncomplicated sex. For the women, the story is more complex. Some certainly seem to be having a good time—maybe they have learned to be good actresses— some are posing like cinema stars, some seem bored, and some are hard to read.  And some of the women had children to take care of in those tough situations, and yet did what they needed to do.

The show will remain up through Friday, September 2.