Carne De Amore (The
Meat Of Love)
Museum Catalog Title:
How Romantic, The Lure
Of An Illicit Liaison With A
Pepper-Hot Contessa Gar-
nished With Guacamole
And Frijoles In A Smoke
Filled Adobe Honky-Tonk
Colloquial Title: Jalapena
Ambush
Moon Over Smoochville
Museum Catalog Title: In The
Grip Of Intense Passion Young
Romantics Siphon Hot Saliva
Through An Eighteen Foot
Human Viscera Snorkel
Colloquial Title: Hearts A-Flutter
While Coupling Sausage
MEXICAND
ROBT
W
describes himself as a modern
day Titian and as a salmon swim-
ming upstream against the art
world, rotting as he goes. He is
standing at the threshold of the art
world, making so much noise
everyone's afraid to open the
door. Judging people's reaction to
his work is like trying to figure out
what will happen when you pour
gasoline over dry ice.
After knife fighting and hot rod-
ding his youth through Alabama
and New Mexico, Robert
Williams ended up in Southern
California creating gory monster
graphics and carnival freakshow
art for custom car wizard Ed "Big
Daddy" Roth. During the Viet-
nam war years Williams was one
of the outrageous contributors to
Zap Comics, manifesto for the
weird, twisted and disgusting, as
well as hippie bohemians and
stoned bikers. The printing in-
dustry collapsed after the wur
because of soaring printing costs,
leaving underground comic artists
to find new ways of supporting themselves
and of expressing their art. Sick of being
labeled an illustrator, Robert Williams began
painting for collectors looking for one man
fighting Nazi women with sweat and beard
and blood flying or tiki totems and the slaves
to elegance. A taste of Robert Williams will
send you to the bathroom wretching or
crawling on your hands and knees begging
for more. Hit me again, harder!
We asked Mr. Williams when and why he
became an artist:
RW: "There is nothing else I can do. I've been
a forklift operator, I've worked in a carnival
as a concessionaire, I've been a soda jerk,
I've loaded boxcars in the sun, I've done
everything. I just know it's be a painter or put
a pistol in my mouth. My back's against a
fucking wall.
I'm left-handed and dyslexic, so school was
always a problem for me. I was always
behind. There was no such thing as dyslexia
up until about five years ago. I had come from
a military family where my father forced me
to strive. Art was a natural thing to me. Other
school work was a tremendous horror. I'd even
convinced myself I was mentally retarded. I
couldn't keep up with the other kids no mat-
ter how hard I tried. But in other endeavors
I was mentally superior to these people. It was
a situation I couldn't understand. In junior
high school I was getting in an awful lot of
trouble with the police. I remember one ad-
ministrator at school actually saved me. He
told me, we'll make a bargain with you, if
you're going to ditch school, don't show up
around the school. Keep off the streets and
we will leave you alone. That was one of the
only breaks I got as a child."
I understand you were involved in gangs.
"I did an awful lot of fighting and I had my
with a knife to where I got a degree as a doc-
ass kicked many times. I was good enough
tor. If you're a good knife fighter, you're a
doctor. I just fought Mexicans day in and day
out. My parents got divorced in 1955 and 1
moved from Alabama to Albequerque, New
Mexico. I ended up in the roughest school in
the country. It was the kind of situation where
every day they're going to find you and
you're going to fight them. The first thing you
learn is you've got to get that first punch in
because your ass is dead anyway. The only
hope you've got is if they know that punch is
coming, they'll give you kind of a break. I
hated violence so much. I thought, 'boy, when
I get out of my teens it's going to be great,
I'll be an adult and won't have to fight
anybody.'
Now I know when to keep my mouth shut.
I know right where the boiling point of trou-
ble is. One thing interesting about pachucos,
and I'm sure it still goes with Latinos, they hate
anything cocky. They live in a very tightly
structured situation. You don't realize it, you
might look out and think these people are
sloppy, but they're not. Everything is very
tight. If you're cocky, it's like a rooster ►
The artist kicks casual in his 'hood with
two choice modes of transportation,
long board and '34 Ford.
KACHINA
Chal
777777