Corky was a good friend of mine. He resided in the Advertising Art School when it was located in the Bullier Building in downtown Portland. Corky originally came from Fallon, Nevada, and served his country in the U.S. Air Force. He was stationed in Germany, and his job was programming missile destination codes for nuclear-tipped missiles. This drove him crazy and he was returned to the U.S.A. strapped to a stretcher. He was married and had a daughter, but in the years I knew him, he never saw his daughter or his wife. He worked at Kelly's Olympian as a "swamper" -- the lowliest job. His artistic speciality was drawing furry animals hair-by-hair with a 000 Rapidograph. Late one night, cleaning up at Kelly's, he made himself a cup of coffee, sat down at the counter, laid his head down on his arm and died. I'll never forget Corky. He was just finishing an oil painting of a lion's face, which I had commissioned and paid for, when he died. His family took possession of it and it's one of their treasured keepsakes. Take a look in the Flying Heart Foto Gallerie to see several of Corky's beautiful works.
This was a personal gift from the artist to Jan Celt. It's unusual in that the subject isn't an animal. It was done in the usual Corky style, that is, using a 000 Rapidograph and no actual lines -- just the dots. Corky would have said the model was "uninhabited."
Last updated March 23rd, 2011 by Jan Chciuk-Celt