 So this is Rick's book? Yes, this is Rick's book. Hello. Hello. Okay. She's the best. Yes! With the Carnival parade, I wanted to do a conga line to start, and then it morphed in. Hello. Welcome to the Little Grill in Littleton, New Hampshire. It is October 5th, 2019, and we are here, myself, Rick Hunt, and Angie Bowie, the amazing Angie Bowie. And we're here today to talk about some of our book projects and to answer any questions that you might have about what we are doing. We are having a book signing here today at four o'clock. We're going to meet and greet the public and sell some books and schmooze, and then we're going to have a fantastic Brazilian barbecue. Angie, good morning. No barbecue sauce on gaucho. Visions. Rick's new book of art. We're so excited. We can't begin to tell you how long we've waited. We've been pals for eight years on the internet, and eventually I couldn't stand it. I had to come and meet Carolyn and Rick and see Gorgeous Littleton, and there it is. That's my hello-how-are-you statement. I want to say that it has been a lifelong dream of mine to have a volume of my art that I could hold in my hot little paw and hot paw of my art. And Angie and M have graciously published this book through Ramco Enterprises, which is Angie's publishing venture. She edited this, so when I first got the test copy, I had no idea what was going to be in the book, because I have literally thousands of images. I was so pleased when I opened this book, and I saw what you picked out. It was like, my gosh, it's perfect. And so I have this wonderful volume now called Goucho Visions Volume One, and there will be a second one coming up rather soon. And our hopes for the future is to continue publishing books and doing our projects. Like Angie said, we've known each other for eight years, and during that time we've come up with... Oh my gosh, catastrophe. Hundreds of projects. Fancy footwork, which Rick illustrated both of these books. And now this, and may I just say this about the artist, because I made him work very hard. I was a bad girl, a task master. He sent me all these beautiful drawings, and I said, no, no, no, no, I want explanations. I want you to riff on what you've drawn. And it was wonderful. It really filled out all of the complexity of what it is that you capture. So I wrote this. Rick Hunt's art and life experience, as well as his international appeal, bring people, places, animals, emotions, and events together, and into focus. With a deaf hand and cunning wit, he draws the familiar in an unfamiliar way. His ability to see inside the happening is where he joins the ranks of the uber-talented, who reveal magical solutions and explanations through their art. In Gaucho Visions, Rick presents us with visual keys, which allows us to revel in the theaters and ballparks of our minds. He takes us to all the interesting places we heard described, while he dresses it in drag and gives it bunny ears to see if we are paying attention. Rick gives one portals to sacred beauty, characters and deeds of chivalrous intention and declarations of romance through his dynamic art. I'm blushing. I know it's hard to make me blush, but Angie does that. Put this together. I love working with this woman. Thank you. That's always a boat of confidence. We have a creative combustion together. Oh, nicely slid in. Very, very smooth. We can be on the phone talking about everything and nothing and be laughing, and all of a sudden, one of us will say something, and all of a sudden, we have a new idea for a new project, or a t-shirt, or a lipstick. But that's okay, because I think a creative combustion of ideas allows one to weed out everything that's a little not quite up there. That's okay, makes us laugh. But the stuff that lasts gets written down, and we do get to it in the end. So we got to it, everybody. Here it is, the first edition, and we will come up with part two. You know, I really enjoyed going to Angie's website, and I think it's ganjiboey.com. Dot net. Dot net. And one of the things that really struck me is that you got to a book publishing from way back, you were a journalist, a writer, a poet, and so here you are, you know, now publishing. And I was wondering if you could just give us a little insight as to what it was like when you were a journalist, and writing about your youth going to college, and school, and in Europe, and what that was like for you. Well, I was always a writer from a very young age. I went to school in Switzerland. I think the first essay that I was impressed with my ability to think was after a history lesson about the Alexandria Museum being burned, and I predicted the internet. I had no problem at 11 years old saying, yes, there will be an electronic library where you will be able to access all the knowledge of the planet. Everybody will become terribly smart, and we won't have to waste so much time and pay so much money for an education. And it was a good essay. Ms. Farmer, which was pleased, she said it showed thoughtfulness and creativity. So after that, I always realized that even though I like to act and I like to direct, and I like to sing and do all the things that one does to entertain, what I really love to do best is right. So yes, thank you for noticing that it was all my life I've been writing. And I have to give credit because I think it's so important that we do this. But Kennedy, really Kennedy's wife, when she went to work as a publisher after John Kennedy was assassinated, she was the person that I amulated. I thought, okay, well now is the time as I'm starting to become an older, more mature person, maybe being a publisher would be a way to go. So I don't know if that answers it. Jackie Kennedy, I'm sorry, I had one of those brainstorms there for a moment, had to think about what her first name was. But I think sometimes we take a lot of things from mentors that we don't even realize. You remember when I told you about finishing pop sex, it was a huge historical reference book about every country, every nationality, how sexuality has charged our politics, has charged how countries expand and contract, either through marriage or through alliances. And it was such a great book, and that was Oscar Wilde. When Oscar Wilde had a problem with stage plays in London, he went back and wrote a historical reference book about one of the people in his family who had been some well-known general at the time, and everyone was able to say, ah yes, but you see there he is. He may write great plays for the West End, but he's also a good, strong historical writer. And I think we do that. I think we take things from all the people that we've learned or admired. And that's true of visual art, my visual art. I've been influenced by a number of really great people. Starting when I was a child, our own Claude L. Brousseau, who was an advertising artist who lived here in Littleton and did all the major pamphlets and promotions for all the area attractions in New Hampshire. He was a gentleman who had the fedora and the pipe and the mustache, and he was old school. And I would go to his studio after elementary school almost every other day and bother him and say, how does this air brush work? You know, can I see what you're working on? And he encouraged me as a child to continue doing my art. Then there was Ken Westhaver from Franconia College. He was the professor there. And I was about 16, and I was fortunate enough that he took me under his wing and brought me to his studio on Saturday mornings where I would sit there and he would give me tasks to do, art-wise, books to read, history of art, lecture me and give me things to do for the next week. And he was a grand person. I love this guy. He's still around. I love Ken. And he had this goatee and he would sit hunched over and he would talk like this. And I just was infatuated with him. He'd be on a stool and I'd be looking up at him. Yeah, and then that chick, Queen Mary did this. And so he reeled me right in. There were others. When I was in sixth grade, Jean Callis, an abstract painter and cake cod, took me to Provincetown for a day, which was a major moment for me. She brought me to galleries, studios. I think I met Hans Hoffman during that time. And I was infatuated with the whole scene being, you know, looking around and seeing shapely women wearing, you know, Roman sandals, walking through the streets and the men with their beards and sunglasses. And it was like, yeah, I want to do this. And now I have mentors, one of them being Angie Bowie. And Angie and Marie Jacque Cozier Dunham from the Beatles Design Group the Fool have been encouraging me the last few years to use color in my work, which for some weird reason I always was afraid to do. I just didn't feel comfortable doing it. But since that door has been opened, I'm working primarily in color now. And my work has a different feel to it. It's shifting. It's changing. It's continuing to evolve because of that. Since we have this in frame, you are shadowed by your painting. Can you tell us about what's over your left shoulder? Oh, this is a great story. Well, here we are at the little grill, a little to New Hampshire. And I was giving Cote Blanche to like do Brazilian murals because Camilla, one of the owners is Brazilian. So she wanted a Brazilian motif and pretty much said, go for it. So in the hallway, there's a Carnival Parade like you would see if you were in Rio de Janeiro during their festivities. And then here, the bar, I started making a Brazilian village. So we have Baena women. We have Zingu tribal people down there in the corner. All of a sudden it started evolving. I get the soccer players. And I started putting in people that either come here or work here or it became like this incredible blooming mural of faces. This particular situation here, I have to tell you, those two people over here are local retired school teachers. And when I was in the process of doing the murals, they kept asking me, can we be on the wall? Can we be on the wall? And I'd be like, well, I don't know. Well, let me think about that. So because they were retired school teachers and I was, I know it's hard to believe I was somewhat rebellious. I can't imagine it. I can't even imagine it. And so I said, well, here's the deal. I'll paint you on the wall, but you're going to be pushing a push cart full of hot yams. So here they are, hot yams. So they came one day and they were modeling for me and this wonderful woman, their friend, came with them and I couldn't leave her out because she was sitting here kind of looking, you know, like she wanted to be up there. So I included her as well. And a jolly good thing too. So oftentimes people will come in here and I'll be here and where there's a space, I might say to them, you want to be on the wall? And so I'll stand on the bar. The last time there were three beautiful women here, right here. And I was standing on the bar and they said, you want to be on the wall? They said, yeah. So I spent like an hour just staring at them while they were eating. And it's one of the perks of being a visual artist, you know. Oh, absolutely. Yes, you have to examine what you're going to paint. I paint what I see. Yes, and so well. And I see so much. Yes. So I'm working on a New Hampshire folks through the cable TV network. And so I'm just thinking of that audience. You know, is there any, anything that you'd like, a message that you'd like to share today? All I could say is that, Miss Deb, we really appreciate you doing this, but due to the fact that they invented that pesky internet I described as a youngster, we can see it on YouTube. Please put it on YouTube. And then everybody can enjoy your wonderful interview with Rick for Gaucho, nope. Gaucho Visions. There we go. And also I would just like to add very quickly that Angie's been coming up to visit us for the last few years and I have to, I'm not speaking for you, but I know you love Littleton. I do. And she's a German. I love Vermont and Massachusetts and this whole chunk, it feels, if I say it, I might insult somebody so I won't. I was going to say it feels more European than when you start going across country or down south. It feels like there's a tradition, probably because of the fact that it's had folks living here hopefully in peace with all of the original inhabitants of this area and so we're always trying to make those connections and I'm parsing my words and my descriptions so that I don't say anything in the not correct manner. Would you please pick that up for me and talk a little bit about Abenaki? Sure. Some of you may know that myself and my wife, Carolyn, are of Abenaki descent. And we are very proud of that. We have participated in our communities for many, many years. And as an artist, I've often said, and this gives me a good chance to clarify this, that I'm an artist first. I'm not an Abenaki artist, but I'm an artist who is Abenaki. And what I mean by that, because I don't, I love my people and my culture, I can't just do culturally flavored art, you know. You're a citizen of the planet Earth. Right. Well, I'm not sure about that. Maybe the galaxy. But the Abenaki culture does seep into my work from time to time. Because it's part and parcel of our lives, Carolyn and mine. But I do a lot of other things with my art. And my style is such, is that I don't have just one style of drawing or painting. I can draw in many styles, and they're all personal styles. I don't try to copy other people's work in any shape, form, or manner. But my work is very visionary. I am a fire keeper in the native community. And I honor that. And I'd like to think that I bring it into my real life here. You know, like my daily living, the way of treating people. And Angie has given me a wonderful vehicle and platform to be able to express a lot of that. And I thank you. So welcome. And thank you for tutoring me, Abenaki. I got it wrong. Forgive me. Well, that's because I'm always like making it how it's easy for me to spell. So, Abenaki. A beautiful Abenaki elder in Odinac, up in Canada, the reservation, was a very hot summer day. And she was elderly and was having a hard time with the heat. So I had her sit in my air conditioned car. So, and we spent an hour or two talking and she corrected me. She said, the correct pronunciation is Abenaki. And you corrected me and I had forgotten. So thank you. When you said it, I thought, oh, Angie, you just fell into your own trap more on. But I am so honored and pleased to be working with Angie hand in hand on all these projects because we have a great chemistry. Oftentimes we find ourselves thinking about the same things at the same time from different places on the planet. And we work really well together. Powers of observation, I guess. And I love her being my muse. She's a great muse. As in confused muse? No. As a wonderful, beautiful muse that's abusing. Abuse with a sense of humor. I think I'll just move and then land right. Thank you, Deb, for taking the time, for coming over here. We want to thank Ms. Deb. Yep. And for coming and paying attention and being interested and we appreciate it so much. Thank you. And also, I just want to say this is interesting that you're doing this with us because I know that a lot of your documentaries has to do with the native community with native issues and things. And what we do is a little bit different, although not so much in that what we want to spread with our work is peace and love. Well, I just want to say that it was told to me that there is not a word in the Avanaki language and the traditional Avanaki language from art because art is a way of walking and seeing beauty every day. So, you know, of course I would celebrate your art because it is beautiful. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. And so aren't you? Yes. I'm ready, I'm ready. He had lots of new stuff and so it was fun. I remember way back when I first met, not even to cut you off, when I first met him, he had all these drawings in a room. I was like, I'm just trying to understand what it was. And I was like, oh, they're very talented back then. You've got to have a talent for that. Yeah, one has to become engaged and enchanted. Yes. Because it's not simple at all. You know, it has that, it always tweaks my intellect, it always makes me go off on a thought. You know, and I love someone who does that. You know, I'll look at it and suddenly I'll say, oh yeah, and then, and then they went over there. I did something, you know, that you created your own world from his drawings, his pictures. It's like a, it's like a mythology of its own. And then when you get to know him and you realize all of the disciplines he's studied, you realize he has access to the same tools that one has as an actor, watching body language and how people react, you know, how you shape that into a character. He does that with his training as a therapist and all of that academia comes out then as art which is extremely important. First of all, this is my beautiful wife, Carol, in Black Hunt. And these pictures you see on the wall of various people are customers and some people that have worked here or work here. A lot of times people would see me working in here on the murals and they'd say, I want to be on the wall. And so I would say, okay, you know, just sit there. And so people would be sitting at the bar and I would be drawing them as they're sitting over here, bright colors. And then it sort of fades into this, this gentleman right there that you have the camera on is Jeff. He's one of the incredible cooks here and cooks for the Brazilian barbecue. He's a great guy and I try to put all the people that work here on the wall. I've missed a few. These four people are regulars that come here and one night they were saying, we would really like to be on the wall. And I said, you know, everybody wants to be on the wall. So while they were in the other room, I spent the evening drawing them on the wall and they didn't know I was doing that. So at the end of the evening they came out of the bar and their jaws dropped because there they were. They sort of looked like Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band. Oh look, there's David Bowie. And I have Angie and M down there. I put my son and his girlfriend on here. This particular woman was waiting to talk to one of the managers for about 45 minutes. She was delivering beer and she was really bored and pacing. So I said, just stop and I'll paint your portrait on the wall. There she is. This bebop saxophone player from outer space. I don't know where he came from, but here he is. I put him up there. This saxophone turns into all kinds of things and ends up being a nice cream cone for some reason. One day a gentleman came in and he wanted to talk to me and turned out that he was an actual professional saxophone player and he loved this and come to find out he had been on a number of Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and other musical luminaries records as their saxophone player. So that was fun. I got to talk to him about his exploits and this happens a lot with this mural. People will come in and they'll look at it and next thing you know I'm talking with people from all over the world about art and it's fabulous.