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Brandon Burlsworth Football Camps

The Brandon Burlsworth Foundation’s “Eyes of a Champion” program

Life’s GREATER Purpose Spotlighted in New Faith-and-Football Film

Burlsworth Trophy

The Burlsworth Trophy is a national award given out to the most outstanding Division One college football player who began his career as a walk-on. The inaugural recipient of the Burlsworth Trophy was Sean Bedford from Georgia Tech.

Houston Nutt: ‘I was locked into Brandon Burlsworth’

by Jay Grelen

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Written by Jay Grelen

Brandon Burlsworth, 77, (top photo) and his Razorback teammates. (Photo by Marty Burlsworth) In photo above, Brandon, 66, practices during  his brief time with the Indianapolis Colts.

Anybody who knows Arkansas Razorback football knows the story of Brandon Burlsworth, how he turned down full rides at smaller schools to walk on with the Hogs, and then made his name as the best walk-on in the history of college football. Arkansas fans know that the Indianapolis Colts took him in the third round of the NFL draft in 1999, and that he died in a car crash weeks later.

Most anybody who knew the story of Brandon’s life said it ought to be a movie.Brian Reindl was one of them, but he did more than talk. He made the movie,Greater, which opened the last weekend in August and is still playing in theaters. The project took more than a decade and cost millions of dollars.

Former Arkansas head Coach Danny Ford hugs Barbara Burlsworth in August 2010 in Fayetteville after the unveiling of the Burslworth Trophy in honor of her son, Brandon. The trophy is given annually to a college player who started his career as a walk-on. (AP photo by Beth Hall)

I’m glad he made the movie, because I wasn’t among the people who knew the story. All I knew about Razorback football was that Marshall Cowley, a schoolmate from Pineville (Louisiana) High School went off to play for the Razorbacks looking like your normal high school offensive lineman. When I saw him after his first year under Frank Broyles, he looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

After my wife and I saw the movie, I contacted Brandon’s family to learn some of the story behind the story. Marty, Brandon’s brother, and Vickie, his sister-in-law, were quick with responses, and generous with photographs. They are gratefully amazed that 17 years after Brandon’s death, his life continues to affect people for the good.

Brandon Burlsworth leaves the field at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock during the 1998 season. (Photo by Brandon’s brother, Marty)

“The movie is doing amazing,” says Vickie, who is executive director of theBrandon Burlsworth Foundation. “Since Rush Limbaugh started promoting it, we have been on a roller coaster ride.  We hear from people all over the country who have been inspired by the movie. Theaters are calling in and requesting the movie. Last week they heard from Rhode Island.”

Brian made the movie for about $9 million. Greater has earned back about $1.75 million and, as you would expect, has been popular in Arkansas. Greaterwas No. 1 in 25 of the 27 theaters in Arkansas over the opening weekend, Brian says. “Over the Labor Day weekend, we were the No. 1 movie in every theater we played in Arkansas.” The total box office take will be about $2 million, he says.

Houston Nutt likes the movie. (When I asked him what he thought of the actor they chose to play him, Coach Nutt’s opinion was a chuckle. “It’s Brandon’ story.”) Mr. Nutt’s  first year at Arkansas was Brandon’s last. He hadn’t met Brandon until the team arrived in August for preseason training. Coach Nutt’s first real memory of Brandon is one of several anecdotes he shared with Mr. Reindl, who included it in his script.

Houston Nutt (AP file photo by April L. Brown)

When Coach Nutt showed up to work, the Razorbacks were coming off two consecutive dismal seasons with 4 wins and 7 losses each. Coach Nutt had been pep-talking his players about the future, but not the immediate future. This was 1998. The coach was thinking ahead to 1999 and 2000, so in effect, he was peptalking the juniors, sophomores and freshmen.

But Brandon, who also went on to become the first Razorback to earn a master’s degree before he played his last football game, urged his coach not to write off the seniors. They wanted to play on a winning team, too. In 1998.

“He says, ‘I wish you wouldn’t use the word ‘rebuild’ ever. We’ll do anything. We’ve been through a lot,’” Coach Nutt recalled in a recent telephone interview from New York, where he was taping shows for CBS Sports as an analyst.

Brandon Burlsworth signs autographs after a game during the 1998 season. (Photo by Marty Burlsworth)

“That sent a message to me that he wants to win. They had gone 4 and 7 and 4 and 7. He knew he only had three months left to play football in college. He was totally committed.

“I couldn’t wait to tell the staff, ‘We’ve got a group of seniors who want to win and want to win now. They have paid a dear price, and they have nothing to show for it. This group wants to win in the worst way.’

“From that moment on,” Coach Nutt says, “I was locked into Brandon Burlsworth.”

Another memorable encounter, which also shows up in the movie, demonstrates Mr. Burlsworth’s characteristic work ethic as he prepared for the first game of the season – Alabama.

“We were nervous,” Coach Nutt says. “I knew how big the Alabama team was.”

About 9 p.m. on Wednesday before the game, Coach Nutt was leaving his office in the Broyles Center and heard someone in the indoor arena. “It was dark. We could hear these shoes on the turf.”

“’Who is that?’”  Mr. Nutt demanded.

It was Brandon Burlsworth. “I didn’t practice well today,” he told his coach. “I want to make sure my steps are right on the power encounter.’

“Everybody had been a little tight that day,” Coach Nutt says. “They knew Alabama was coming to town. We just didn’t have a good practice. He knew it, but he didn’t ever point the finger – he looked at himself.”

The next day, Coach Nutt asked several of his players how they had spent their Wednesday night. Then he said: “Let me tell you about one of your teammates. He was worried about how he practiced. He was in the arena last night.”

Marty Burlsworth stands in front of his brother’s locker, which has been retired and preserved in his memory. (Photograph by Stephen Thetford)

That story, says Coach Nutt, also illustrates the leadership of Mr. Burlsworth, who was known for yelling frequently to his teammates: “How bad do you want it?”

Arkansas beat Alabama 42 to 6. “We made Alabama quit that day,” Coach Nutt says. “It was a whipping. They dominated that day. There were very few missed assignments.”

When Coach Nutt met him,  Brandon knew he had only three months left in his college football career. He wanted it to count. What he couldn’t know was that, except for a few days with the Indianapolis Colts in April 1999, those three months were all the football that was left to him.

The Colts coaches were high on the Hog from Harrison. After Brandon’s camp with the Colts, a scout told Coach Nutt that Brandon probably would start as a rookie and likely would have a long career in the NFL.

If he had lived and played, Mr. Burlsworth would have realized the dreams of every kid who dreams of the NFL. As an offensive lineman, Mr. Burlsworth would have protected one of the best quarterbacks ever, Peyton Manning, and he would have followed Mr. Manning to Super Bowl 2006 and a championship ring.

At the minicamp, Brandon met Peyton, Vickie says. “Peyton asked Bran if he was single.  Bran said, ‘Yes,’ and Peyton said, ‘Cool, someone not married that I can hang out with.’”

After his two weeks in Indianapolis, Brandon flew home on April 18, 1999, a Sunday. His brother, Marty, and their mother, Barbara, met him at the airport in Springfield.

“He stayed around the house and left for Fayetteville on Tuesday,” Vickie says. “He spent (Tuesday)  night with Joe Dean Davenport.” (Joe Dean later played for the Colts.)

On his short visit back to campus, Brandon told Coach Nutt that he wasn’t going to attend the ceremony to pass out rings on Wednesday.

Marty and Vickie Burlsworth (Photo by Stephen Thetford)

On Wednesday, Brandon ate lunch with Brent Bender, son of assistant Coach Mike Bender, who coached Brandon for four years. “Bran had called me at our photography studio that morning asking if Marty could help him find a new hub cap to replace one he’d lost on his car,” Vickie recalls.  His parents, who had divorced, had bought a Subaru for Brandon to drive to college.

On his way to Harrison to take his mother to church, Mr. Burlsworth’s Subaru crossed the center line and collided with an eighteen wheeler.

Mr. Nutt well remembers the words of his first-team All American from their last conversation, less than 24 hours earlier: “Coach,” Mr. Burlsworth said, “I’ll be going home.”

*****

Greater, the movie, includes several scenes from the November 14, 1998, game between No. 10 Arkansas and No. 1 Tennessee. The game is on YouTube. We have tagged some real-life moments to compare to the movie. In one scene, Brandon comes from out of nowhere to stop a Tennessee touchdown after the Volunteers blocked a field goal. In real life, Brandon’s chase is more amazing than the  movie version. The sequence that leads to his fourth-quarter save starts at  2:05:40 –  Tennessee sacks Clint Stoerner; Arkansas drops a pass that would have been a sure  touchdown; Tennessee blocks a field goal, recovers the ball and the Volunteers’ Al Lewis runs like his feet are on fire for the endzone; but Brandon won’t let it happen. He outruns his teammates to knock the linebacker out of bounds at the Arkansas 36.

Brandon Burslworth (Photo courtesy of Brandon Burlsworth Foundation)

At 2:13:05, there is a great shot of Brandon, unmistakable in his black-frame glasses. With the Hogs ahead 24-20, the Hogs blow a punt and give Tennessee two points with a safety, then kick off. Tennessee stalls, and with a minute, 54 seconds left on fourth and 9, the Volunteers fail to convert, and the Hogs take over on downs. On second down and 11, Brandon and Stoerner’s feet tangle, Stoerner trips, falls and fumbles. In the replay, you can see Brandon and Stoerner cross shins. Watch it at 2:26:00. In the movie, Brandon tries to convince Stoerner to blame him for the turnover, but Stoerner takes responsibility. With 30 seconds left, Tennesse scores a touchdown, goes ahead for the first time in the game, and wins 28-24.

 

 

Sports Dungeon 05-17-2011 Part 2

726 Harrison 04-27-2011 Part 3

Football camp

Quinton Aaron of “The Blindside” talks “Greater” and the faith and character of Brandon Burlsworth

FIRST LOOK – “Greater” movie review

Razorbacks Remember Legend With Award

Greater: Official Trailer – Old #2

Brandon Burlsworth

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Brandon Burlsworth Football Camps

Old game footage and old photographs are a sweet reminder of the unforgettable story of Brandon Burlsworth. A new film set to hit theaters tomorrow chronicles Burlsworth incredible journey of beating the odds to play college football.

The Arkansas Razorbacks joined the team as a walk-on, becoming an All-American, and earning his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree at the same time.

Brandon’s passionate yet painful faith story is now captured in a film called “Greater” which is inspired by the book written about the life of number 77.

“It was a passion project for everyone who was involved,” actor Neal McDonough told CBN News.

McDonough plays Marty, Brandon’s big brother and father figure in the film, and he said he was instantly moved by Brandon’s story.

“Brandon was exactly as the film depicts him,” said McDonough. “Just a saint of a man that had literally nothing going for him as kid and became not just the greatest walk on in college history, but one of the greatest athletes in college history.”

Burlsworth died in a tragic car accident 11 days after being drafted to play with the Indianapolis Colts.

Marty struggles with the loss of his brother and McDonough said reconciling that on camera was a difficult job.

“That journey and the struggle of why does God take someone so great away from us at the worst of times and to have to deal with that and man up and be strong enough for everyone,” he said. “That is a difficult job to do.”

This is a different role for the actor famous for his work in shows like “Arrow” and films like “Red” and “Band of Brothers”.

McDonough said his faith influences the roles that he chooses to play.

“I have gotten into trouble for that at times. People saying you be such a big star if you would have those scenes with women, sex scenes and such,” he said. “When you do a bed scene, you are actually in the bed, if you are having love scenes. It’s physical. And I am just not comfortable with that.”

“When it comes to doing intimate roles in films, I won’t do it because I love my wife so much, and I don’t think that is what God wanted me to do,” he added.

The Brandon Burlsworth Foundation’s “Eyes of a Champion” program

Life’s GREATER Purpose Spotlighted in New Faith-and-Football Film

Burlsworth Trophy

Sports Dungeon 05-17-2011 Part 2

726 Harrison 04-27-2011 Part 3

Football camp

Quinton Aaron of “The Blindside” talks “Greater” and the faith and character of Brandon Burlsworth

FIRST LOOK – “Greater” movie review

Razorbacks Remember Legend With Award

Greater: Official Trailer – Old #2

Brandon Burlsworth

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David Perry interviews legendary poet, artist and activist Lawrence Ferlinghetti

http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Lawrence-Ferlinghetti-s-indelible-image-3886925.php

Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s indelible image

SUNDAY PROFILE / Lawrence Ferlinghetti

By Julian Guthrie

Updated 3:05 am, Monday, September 24, 2012

Lawrence Ferlinghetti was in his early 30s when he wrote a poem of hope and innocence about a penny candy store in New York and the magic to be found in jellybeans and licorice sticks, about the evanescence of a rainy September afternoon.

Sixty years later, Ferlinghetti has written a new book-length poem, “Time of Useful Consciousness,” where “technocracy” dominates the heart, where corporations rule the people, where man is greedy and badly educated, andWalt Whitman‘s optimism is needed – as time is running out.

Since the 1950s, Ferlinghetti has been a San Francisco institution. He openedCity Lights in North Beach, a renowned bookstore that attracts visitors from across the world. He stood behind the publication of Allen Ginsberg‘s “Howl,” an act of daring that changed the course of publishing in America. He penned dozens of books, published breakthrough works – including the Beat writers, who insisted on oral incantations – and became San Francisco’s first poet laureate and its most lyrical town crier.

“My poetry, including ‘The Time of Useful Consciousness,’ is activism,” Ferlinghetti said, sitting in a cafe in North Beach near his home. “Ecologically and politically, it’s a totally dim prospect.”

The 93-year-old poet spends one day a week at City Lights, and on other days can be found at his painter’s studio in Hunters Point. Painting, he says, is the lighter antidote to his more painstaking poetry. With his keen blue eyes, white beard and snazzy, paint-streaked sneakers, he looks every bit the part of painter, poet and gentleman radical.

“The norm is that when people get older, they get more politically conservative, but it’s been the opposite for me,” Ferlinghetti said with a laugh.

Striving to improve world

Ferlinghetti’s biographer, Bill Morgan, an archivist and bibliographer for Ginsberg, said the San Francisco poet has always been “interested in making things better and calling attention to the crazy things going on.”

“Lawrence is still an activist interested in the politics of our time,” Morgan said. “He’s a really good performer of his poetry. He does not consider himself a Beat poet, but he was a publisher of the Beats. And City Lights is one of the best book stores in the country – and it’s been there for 60 years.”

Barry Gifford, the Bay Area author, screenwriter and poet who was friends with Ginsberg, was introduced to Ferlinghetti’s poetry in high school.

“When I was a kid in high school, I remember someone had ‘A Coney Island of the Mind,’ and it made a real impression,” Gifford said of Ferlinghetti’s book of poetry, which has sold more than 1 million copies. “Lawrence has a way of saying what he needs to say in a style that is immediately comprehensible. He’s always been able to communicate with his poetry better than most.”

Gifford added, “Lawrence’s connection with the Beats is not to be underestimated, but he has made – and continues to make – a lasting contribution to American literature.”

Ferlinghetti was born in Yonkers, N.Y., in March 1919. His father, Carlo Ferlinghetti, died before he was born. His mother, Clemence, overcome by stress, asked a relative to care for Lawrence, the youngest of her five boys. Only later did he reconnect with his family.

Awakened to activism

He earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; his master’s at Columbia University, with a thesis on critic John Ruskin and painter J.M.W. Turner; and his doctorate at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1950, where he studied comparative literature and delivered his thesis (in French) on “The City as a Symbol in Modern Poetry.”

He attended the Sorbonne on the GI Bill, having served as a lieutenant commander in the Navy during World War II.

“I was the all-American boy, the Eagle Scout,” Ferlinghetti said. “I remember I was at my girlfriend’s apartment, and there were these strange publications like the Nation and the New Republic. I started looking at them and thought, ‘Gee, this is weird; people saying things against America?’ It was an awakening. On the East Coast, I’d never even heard of conscientious objectors.”

Ferlinghetti came to San Francisco in January 1951, knowing no one and having little money. He walked up Market Street from the Ferry Building, and asked a passer-by for the Bohemian part of town. Soon settled in North Beach, he began listening to KPFA, the free, independent FM radio station that included a weekly segment by Kenneth Rexroth, the poet, essayist and philosophical anarchist.

KQED Spark – Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Partnering for City Lights

The idea of City Lights came about by chance.

“I was coming up from my painting studio, and I drove up Columbus Avenue,” Ferlinghetti said. “It was a route I wouldn’t normally take, and I saw a guy putting up a sign where City Lights is now.” Ferlinghetti hopped out of his car and went to say hello.

“I said, ‘What are you doing?’ and he said, ‘I’m starting a paperback bookstore, but I don’t have any money. I’ve got $500.’ I said, ‘I have $500.’ The whole thing took about five minutes. We shook hands, and the store opened in June 1953 as City Lights Pocket Bookshop.”

Ferlinghetti’s partner was Peter Martin, a sociology student at San Francisco State who had been publishing a small magazine called City Lights. Martin was the first to publish the works of Pauline Kael – who was another KPFA contributor and would go on to be a film critic for the New Yorker.

“Peter’s idea was to sell quality paperbacks, which were just coming onto the market,” Ferlinghetti said. “At the time, paperback books weren’t considered real books by the trade. They were just these 25-cent pocketbooks that were merchandized like newspapers on the newsstands, but the newsstand guys didn’t understand what they had.”

Around the same time, Ferlinghetti married Selden Kirby-Smith, who went by “Kirby.” She was the granddaughter of a Civil War general and the daughter of a successful doctor, and she had earned her master’s degree from Columbia. The two met in 1946 aboard a ship en route to France. They were both heading to Paris to study at the Sorbonne.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti & Timothy Leary

[l to r: Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Timothy Leary, at the Human Be-In, Golden Gate Park, 1967 January 14], photograph by Gene Anthony, courtesy, .

Dylan & Ferlinghetti

Ferlinghetti & Burroughs. Lawrence Ferlinghetti …

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, born March 24, 1919

[The City Lights in North Dakota Conference, in Grand Forks, North Dakota, sponsored by the UND English Department, was the first of many Beat related conferences recognizing the cultural importance of the Beats. Clockwise from top left: Michael McClure,Gregory Corso, Miriam Patchen, Kenneth Rexroth, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Peter Orlovsky, Gary Snyder, Janie McClure, Shig Murao, Curator (name unknown – female), Joanne McClure Curator (name unknown – male),  March 18, 1974. – Photo by D.Sorensen ]

Obscenity trial for ‘Howl’

In 1955, Ferlinghetti went to a poetry reading at the Six Gallery on Fillmore Street to hear Philip Lamantia, Gary Snyder,Philip Whalen, Michael McClure and Ginsberg – all introduced by Rexroth. Jack Kerouac also was there but declined to read.

It was Ginsberg’s first public reading of his wild, graphic and shattering poem, “Howl,” which opens with the lines: “I saw the best of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix.”

“Allen gave me the manuscript a couple of weeks before the public reading,” Ferlinghetti said. “What a great poet does is let you see the world in a way you’ve never seen it before. That’s what Allen did.”

The day after the reading, Ferlinghetti sent a Western Union telegram to Ginsberg, who was staying in Berkeley. “I wrote, ‘I greet you at the beginning of a great career,’ which is what Emerson wrote to Whitman when he first read ‘The Leaves of Grass.’ I asked, ‘When do we get the manuscript?’ ”

“Howl and Other Poems” was the fourth book in Ferlinghetti’s City Lights’ Pocket Poets Series, and featured an introduction by William Carlos Williams. In 1957, hundreds of copies of the book were seized by U.S. customs officials – who stated, “You wouldn’t want your children to come across it” – and Ferlinghetti was charged with obscenity in a trial that drew international attention.

“We had submitted the manuscript to the ACLU ahead of time, asking if they would defend us if we were busted,” Ferlinghetti said. “They committed themselves ahead of time. Of course, when the trial began, I was young and stupid and thought a few months in jail would be OK; I’d have a lot of time to read.”

Free flow of literature

Ferlinghetti won that year, when the Municipal Court judge ruled that the poem couldn’t be deemed obscene because it had “redeeming social significance.”

“That established us as an independent bookstore,” Ferlinghetti said. “And after that, the floodgates were open. Grove Press – which spent a lot of money on the trial – was able to publish ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ and Henry Miller’s books and so on.” City Lights also was known for carrying the first gay, lesbian and transgender publications.

While many of his writers were known for drug and alcohol use – he once lent his Big Sur cabin to Kerouac to dry out – Ferlinghetti always made it home for dinner.

“My mother was very protective in terms of who we had over at the house,” said daughter Julie Ferlinghetti Susser, who now lives in Tennessee. “We had Gregory Corso to our house, and he once tried to shoot up. He was never allowed back. My mother did really like Kerouac. Ginsberg would come over whenever he was in town, and my mother tolerated him. He was never interested in what women had to say.”

Immediacy of painting

Throughout her childhood, Susser remembers something else: “I would sit by the door every night, waiting for my dad. … He was home every day by 5:30 or 6. I remember I begged and pleaded for a pony, and my dad got me one. I saw him as a businessman who went to work and came home at the same time. He always made things fun.”

The Ferlinghettis, who divorced in 1973 but remained close, also had a son, Lorenzo, who lives in Bolinas and has two children. Kirby Ferlinghetti died this year and is buried in their family plot in Bolinas.

These days, the poet is gravitating to painting. George Krevsky, Ferlinghetti’s longtime gallerist, said, “When I first met Lawrence, I said, ‘I’ve met two great poets – you and Robert Frost,’ and he said, ‘You should see my paintings.’ ”

For Ferlinghetti, painting is a “lyrical escape,” a way to express himself that has more immediacy than his poems.

“It’s easier to get high doing a painting,” he said, walking home from the North Beach cafe. “For one thing, it’s more instantaneous. A book – this new book of mine – is two years of work. Whereas a painting, I might have one in a day. I feel like I can take a lot of chances in painting.”

Ferlinghetti’s outlook, like his poetry and like his paintings, moves from dark to light, from foreboding to hopeful. He looks at poems such as “The Pennycandystore” as embodying a time of innocence for himself, and America.

“I wrote that in the early ’50s,” he said of the candy store poem. “America was full of hope.”

Sending a lifeline to culture

The title of his new work, “Time of Useful Consciousness,” to be released in October, comes from an aeronautical term denoting the time between when one loses oxygen and when one passes out, the moments when it’s still possible to save your life.

“It’s a statement about where culture is,” Ferlinghetti said. Smiling, his blue eyes taking in the sunshine in North Beach, he added, “I’m trying to be an optimist.”

Julian Guthrie is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jguthrie@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JulianGuthrie

Good article on Lawrence Ferlinghetti:

August - October 1999
Lawrence Ferlinghetti The Painter 1989 oil on canvas 36 1/2 x 40 in. CLICK ON IMAGE FOR MORE DETAILED VIEW	LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI just returned from three weeks in Europe. One of his stops was in Florence for a book signing and poetry reading at City Lights Italia, a book store named after the one he had co-founded in San Francisco in 1952, but not otherwise connected with it. A man there walked up to him, “and he handed me a thousand dollars in American money. I said, ‘Well, what’s that for?’ He said, ‘Well, I’ll give you 2000 more if you’ll do ten designs relating to Leonardo Da Vinci. It’s his 500th anniversary, and then we’re going to have an exhibition. We’ve asked 70 artists around the world to do this, and the exhibition will be in Milan sometime around 2000.'” Turned out the man was Francesco Conz, a collector who had been a primary funder of the Fluxus movement in Europe. He also invited Ferlinghetti to his home in Verona, a four story building filled with surrealist and Fluxus art by the likes of Dali, Joseph Cornell, and André Breton.When Ferlinghetti returned to where he was staying, he took a supplement from the Sunday edition of La Repubblica-“sort of an illustrated history of art, 48 pages, saddle stitched. There was an illustration of Monet, and one of Gauguin-it went back centuries.” He chose several pages, and in French, English, or Italian wrote “‘Leonardo was here’-he had influenced all these artists. And on a couple of illustrations I put, ‘Leonardo was here’ with a question mark. And things like that. Then I did a little bit of collage on them, and that was it. I mounted them on story boards and sent them to him and he sent me $2000 more.” One of his reasons for going to Italy was to select the final versions of glass plates that had been commissioned by a hotel in Venice and that were being produced by “the top maestro on the famous glass-making island of Murano. I was in his factory for two days. I had sent him the designs [in black and white] several months ago, and they produced some trial plates, which then I chose among. . . . I chose two colors, two of the designs. They did them in cobalt blue on very light transparent blue glass, and the other two are going to be on yellow ochre. Basically, the design was Auroboro, the snake eating its own tail, which fits onto a plate very nicely. Did several variations of that. Now they’re going to produce a limited edition.” A week before he went to Italy, he attended the opening of his solo show at Dominican College in San Rafael CA. Curated by Diane Roby, it consisted of about a dozen paintings on canvas or burlap, and a similar number of drawings, lithographs, and other works on paper. The paintings ranged from about 17×13½” to 68×72″, and most of them referred directly or indirectly to such personages as El Greco, Freud, Ezra Pound, Magritte, Picasso, Van Gogh, or Motherwell. The works on paper included Serpent – Bird, a seven-panel suite of drawings in sumi-e ink on Japanese paper; done in Big Sur in 1997; it shows a serpent turning into a bird. There were also about 15 books, including such things as his most recent novel, a book of his drawings of the figure, When I Look at Pictures (images and poetry), as well as a number of broadsides.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti Liberty Series #6 1991 oil on canvas 50 x 56 in. CLICK ON IMAGE FOR MORE DETAILED VIEW

Ferlinghetti started painting in 1948 while he was in Paris writing poetry and novels and preparing to get his doctorate in comparative poetry from the Sorbonne. “A guy I was rooming with left his painting equipment behind when he went home, so I picked it up and gave it a try.” He soon became serious about painting and began to attend drawing sessions to work from the figure (first at the open studio of theAcadémie Julien), a practice he continues to this day.Before the show, he had been collaborating on a series of pieces with Christopher Felver, who created photos of himself in various stages of clown makeup and which Ferlinghetti then wrote on. “On one of them I wrote, ‘I am not a clown.'” They hope to publish the series of 16 pieces in the near future.

Ferlinghetti / Felver I Am Not a Clown 1999 mixed media CLICK ON IMAGE FOR MORE DETAILED VIEW

Last October, Gibbs Smith publishedFerlinghetti Portrait, a book of Felver’s photographs that also contains the subject’s long poem “Autobiography.” The shots include several of the painter in his studio, at City Lights, at Big Sur, and about 100 others. A documentary, also by Felver, The Coney Island of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, was shown last fall at the Mill Valley Film Festival at the Roxie in SF, and on PBS, where it will be shown again.Ferlinghetti’s work can be seen at the George Krevsky Gallery in San Francisco (415-397-9748) and at the Molly Barnes Gallery in Santa Monica (310-395-4404). San Francisco CA, 07.28.99

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