Hy Zagon, Pueblo, Colorado at City Park Zoo, 1942

I like to post photos of my father on August 28, which was his birthday.  So I was looking through my photos and although I have seen this one often, I don't think I have posted it here. This is from my mother's war-time album that begins with their first dates, then their wedding and honeymoon photos, and then Army pictures my dad sent back from Europe juxtaposed with photos of Pueblo. My mother met my father at a USO dance.  He was a Brooklyn boy, in the army and stationed in Pueblo for a short time. They married six weeks after they met,  had time for a honeymoon trip to Brooklyn, and then he was shipped  overseas to do his bit against the Nazis. 

This photo is one of the earliest photos in the album, and I believe this was their first date.* Today I cleaned it up a bit in Painter and iPhoto, but left it pretty much as it was.

This image might seem a strange choice to mark my father's birthday, but this moment marks a turning point in his life.  He was a young man from Brooklyn, just passing through Colorado at the whim of the US Army, but because he had met my mother there, his life would change, and he would come back from the war to live in Pueblo, not Brooklyn.  Here he is, a young bachelor, enjoying an outing at Pueblo's little zoo, enjoying the company of the woman he would marry.  Years later, as a husband and father, he would make many, many trips to this zoo with his daughter,  to show her the animals, let her climb "Monkey Mountain" and ride the carousel. across the street.

*(I know, there are other soldiers in the photo, so I could be wrong. But this is part of a little set of photos and I think my mother took this picture.)

Rage of Achilles (Painting as of Aug 15, 2025)

On August 15th, I got underway with my painting for the upcoming Porter Mill show with the theme of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. This is part of a little series I have going of paintings related to literary works (on "Moby Dick",  "Alice in Wonderland",  "Scarlet Letter" and  a "Midsummer Night's Dream"  so far.) 

For the Homer show, I decided to paint he shield of Achilles inscribed with a quotation from the Iliad,  the opening line, as translated by Robert Fagles.:

"Rage -- Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaens countless losses hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls." 

  I had already laid out the text in pencil on canvas, so on August 15th, I went over the lettering with brown Sharpie marker, followed by brush work with paint.  This is still rough, but my goal was to work out placement of the text, which is actually part of the composition.

Rage of Achilles (Rough Sketch on Canvas) as of Aug 14, 2025

This is a rough sketch for a painting for the upcoming Porter Mill show with the theme of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.  (By happenstance, I have a little series of paintings going, all related to literary works, a departure from my usual painting subjects.)  Over the past year, I have participated in  two literature-themed shows at Porter Mill (one on "Moby Dick", and one on "Alice in Wonderland") and a "Scarlet Letter" show at the Salem Athenaem and  a "Midsummer Night's Dream" show at TAG in Boston. 

So when I first learned of the Porter Mill "Homer" show, I said yes, and my idea came right away. I would paint he shield of Achilles inscribed with a quotation from the Iliad.  After some indecision on the quotation, I  chose the opening line, as translated by Robert Fagles:

"Rage -- Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaens countless losses hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls." 

On August 13 and 14, I worked on the layout for this painting, using pencil on canvas.  My main goals:  create a spiral within a circle, and establish rough placement of the words.  I had to do a little digital cleanup to make it possible see the sketch.

Quick Sketch for "Homer" Painting as of August 12, 2025

This is my idea for a painting for the upcoming September show at Porter Mill, with the theme of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.  In a departure from my painting preoccupations,  I am building up a little series of paintings related to literary work; these opportunities came along by chance, but I  was open to them   because of my interest in art/literary relations that was my focus in graduate school.. So over the past year, I have participated in  two literature-themed shows at Porter Mill ( one on Moby Dick, and one on Alice in Wonderland) and a "Scarlet Letter" show at the Salem Athenaem and  a "Midsummer Night's Dream" show at TAG in Boston. 

So when I first learned of the "Homer" show, I said yes right away and knew I would paint a shield (the shield of Achilles) inscribed with a quotation from the Iliad.  It took me a while to decide on the  quotation, but I chose the opening line, as translated by Robert Fagles. The problem was how to arrange the text in a circle so it would be readable,  and in the end, I decided to use as spiral, just as I did in my painting about Moby Dick. So a few days ago, I grabbed a piece of paper and a Sharpie and started to work out the composition.

The quotation is:  "Rage -- Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaens countless losses hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls." 

"Brothers and Sisters" (Portrait as of Aug. 9, 2025)

It has been a while since I posted progress on this commissioned portrait, but I have been working on it all along, time permitting.   The first step was figure drawing, getting the positions of all four kids in the right place.  This took a while, and there were lots of mistakes along the way, and each time I made major changes, in the figures, I had to rework the faces too.  So the likenesses came and went with each change.  Once I was pretty happy with the figures, I started to concentrate more attention on the faces, and after lots more changes, I am finally getting there with all four faces. This is still rough, but I feel like it is on track. I held off posting progress on this until I was reasonably happy with the faces, but now I am, so here it is.