Mott-ly
The first time I ever saw Mott-ly was at his student art show at the Art Institute. His artwork was mostly of found objects, and included actual dead birds and things. These items were oftentimes arranged in boxes, and his biggest influence was Joseph Cornell. He himself was a wild-haired cripple who had to walk on a cane and wear odd shaped special shoes. I was very fascinated by him but never had a good opportunity to become acquainted with him until Archer Prewitt involved him in a musical project that included my wife Lori. That band was Mudhead, and that provided the opportunity to become acquainted with him. From that point Mott-ly and I remained good friends.
It was during the few years that Mudhead existed that Mott-ly had his troublesome leg amputated, and later, in 2004, he finally had to lose his other leg. At that time he was operating a little art space called MoMO. He died in May of 2007.
At the time that I did this painting Mott-ly was living in a brick house on Warwicke. Years later I would live in the same house, above him. Anyway, that's the house behind him. I've made one shoe red and one blue because he'd actually painted his special shoes that way. One thing that I have changed on the painting since I did it was that I originally put actual dead birds on the canvas. I had a suspicion that they would rot away, and they did. Somehow there are still constructions that Mott made with bird wings in them that remain in perfect condition, but mine rotted. So in about 1991 I took a sander to the thing to get all bird remains off of it, and that's when I painted in the dead birds on the ground instead. I'm not sure that they're so necessary, but they're better than having crumbling bones on the thing.