Adrian and Mila

Adrian and Mila
2020 by F. Lennox Campello

 

Birth Control Glasses

 One of the things that every Navy sailor or veterans knows about is the curious case of Navy-issued glasses, known to sailors as "Birth Control Glasses" or "BCG."

Somehow these nerdy glasses became hip in the 2000s, a great testimonial to the overwhelming power of Millennials and follow-on generations to enjoy what their predecessors abhorred and detested.

Upon arrival to boot camp, one of the first things confiscated - if you wore glasses - were your nice, hopefully cool "civilian" glasses. They were almost overnight replaced with BCGs, which had the magical power of turning anyone, no matter how beautiful or handsome, into an immediate geek, not worth procreation.

Therefore, one of the first things that most sailors then did upon graduation from boot camp was to head to the Navy Exchange, find the eye doctor, and order some "civilian" glasses. Only those unfortunately born to be nerds, kept their BCGs, and I suspect that the BCGs and their original glasses were quite similar.

When I was stationed in San Diego in the late 1970s, our gang of squids and leather necks used to have as part of our group a Third Class Hospital Corpsman (HM3) who worked at the medical facility next to the San Diego boot camp area, which I think also served the Marine Corps boots in the Marine base on Barnett Avenue next to the Navy base then in Point Loma and now closed for many years.

This HM3 managed to have access to all the BCGs that boots would discard when they got their civilian glasses at the Point Loma base, and he'd rescue them from the garbage dumps and save them in a box.

Why would an HM3 save BCGs by the dozens each week you ask?

Each weekend, my then girlfriend Andrea, who was the only one among us losers who actually had a car, would pack her Toyota with my friends and I and drive us to the border with Mexico, where we'd head for Tijuana, or "TJ" as sailors call it, for a night of drinking and fooling around - is was essentially the only option for the under 21 crowd, as back then the only place around San Diego where a Navy sailor under 21 could get a drink was at the Enlisted Club on base (weird to think that back then a sailor could drink booze on base, but not out in town if you were under 21).

Going to the Enlisted Club deserves another story... suffice to say that usually there were usually a few hundred sailors and Marines in there and four women. If you brought a girl to the club, you better be ready to fight a few dozen drunks messing with your girl every few minutes.

So we'd go to TJ, and Andrea (who was perhaps the nicest person whom I've ever met) would drop us off at the border crossing and either agree to pick us up early the next day... or sometimes wait in the parking lot while she studied (she was in college).

When I say nice, I mean super nice!

We'd then head to the border crossing and once in Mexico hail a taxi.  As most of us were usually busted a few days after payday, the "in-betweens" is where the BCGs came into play.  First we'd hail a taxi and - since I spoke Spanish - I'd explain to the cab driver that we'd trade him a few pairs of prescription glasses for a ride to town.

That's some of us in the pic below...

It always worked - every single time! A few times (to my surprise) the driver would even start trying glasses until he found his prescription - that always left a bit of squirm in the pit of your stomach to realize that the driver needed glasses and didn't have any until that point.

At the bar(s) we'd bring out the box and start trading drinks for glasses... with the bar tender, with the bouncers, with the bar girls, with the customers... essentially with anyone interested... and who needed glasses.

It always worked!

The trick was to estimate (and we got good at it) how many glasses we'd need at one or two o'clock in the morning when we'd need them to get a cab back to the border crossing.

And that's how discarded BCGs bought all kinds of things in trade for a bunch of broke-ass American sailors in search of a drink!

Dan Marino

"Dan Marino"
1983 limited edition lithograph 4x4 inches

Opportunity for Photographers

The Sony World Photography Awards are organized annually by World Photography Organization and sponsored by Sony. 

The Sony World Photography Awards features four competitions: 

1. Professional competition

2. Open competition

3. Youth competition

4. Student competition

No Entry Fee. 

Details here.

The Macha

The Macha

c. 2019 Original charcoal and conte on unfired Bisque

"The Macha" is an original charcoal and conte drawing on unfired broken Bisque - the plate is curved and sticks out about 1 inch from the wall once hung -- It is signed and dated in pencil recto and titled, signed and dated in marker recto on the verso. Again... the work hangs on the wall and projects about 1 inch off the wall, so it's a bit three-dimensional... 

The Macha is the Celtic Goddess who is the protector of women and children.

Feet wet

 Sometimes people ask me why I'm always drawing mostly women... like the Carlos Gardel song says: "Si soy así ¿qué voy a hacer? pa' mí la vida tiene forma de mujer..."

"Feet wet (soon to be feet dry): Cuba loses another daughter" Charcoal and conte on paper 1990s In a private collection in Boston

This is "Feet wet (soon to be feet dry): Cuba loses another daughter" circa late 1990s, done after President Clinton imposed the "feet dry/feet wet" policy which condemned to jail thousands of Cubans trying to escape from Castro's Workers' Paradise and who were caught "feet wet" and returned to the prison island. It is in a private collection in Boston. 18x24 inches, charcoal on paper.

The Johnson Twins

 

The Johnson Twins - USS Saratoga Port Visit Taranto, Italy, 1976
By F. Lennox Campello

The Lilith Creating Darkness

 

The Lilith Creating Darkness
2009 by F. Lennox Campello

Isla Torturada

"Isla Torturada"
Hand-colored monoprint with embedded pins
5x7 inches

 

Isla del Ciervo Herido

 

Isla Golpeada
Hand-colored monoprint, c. 1980 by F. Lennox Campello
(Verse by Jose Marti)

A sailor and his date

A Sailor and his date
1986 vintage US Navy cartoon by F. Lennox Campello

 

You think that's hard?

 When I was in the Navy I did dozens of illustrations for newspapers (such as The Stars & Stripes), and sketches of his shipmates and other US Navy sailors in ports in the US and European ports.  Most of these drawings and paintings were given away to his shipmates, but I also kept many of them - this one has been in storage for over 40 years and was recently found!

Congrats to President-elect Biden

And so the Orange one appears to have lost... maybe another casualty of the Covidian monster!

I sincerely hope that President-elect Biden can handle the Presidency and this doesn't turn out to be a case of elder abuse, as sometimes Joe seems to be a bit out of it.  

I pray for him and wish him the best of luck - I didn't vote for you, but now that you're about to become President, I will support and respect you and hope that you're not being used as a stooge by the DNC to set up your VP.

I gotta bad feeling about this - keep your eyes peeled Dr. Biden! Protect your husband!

God Bless you Mr. Prez, and God Bless the USA!

Saint Ninian Preaching to the Picts

St. Ninian Preaching to the Picts
1995 Charcoal by F. Lennox Campello 

When Marines go wild

All I said... by F. Lennox Campello, circa 1983

The Sonoma Ballet Conservatory Drawings

These are some of the drawings that I did as a fundraiser for the Sonoma Ballet Conservatory in early 1993 - there were almost a couple of hundred of them! I exhibited about 30 of them at the Chevrier's Presidio Gallery in Sonoma, and they all sold out on opening night!

I used some of these in 1994 or 1995 to apply for a studio at the Torpedo Factory.

I was rejected, and one of the reasons given for the rejection was that the drawings were "clearly copies of Degas' works." 

I was furious that someone's lack of art history knowledge had disqualified my application, but later I realized that whoever that erroneous and anonymous juror had also taught me an unintended lesson: there are some subjects in art (in this case ballerinas) that are so imprinted into the collective mind as coming from a particular artist (in this case Degas), that the subject has been signed off into eternity as not to be re-done by anyone else!

That was a harsh lesson to learn, but a very valuable one! 

Portrait of John Lennon

This portrait of John Lennon is from an assignment at the UW School of Art - circa 1980. The assignment was to incorporate a complex pattern (his shirt) into an otherwise plain line drawing. It has been for years in the collection of my lawyer.

Portrait of John Lennon by F. Lennox Campello - circa 1980 

The Gunny

A 1975 sketch from observing a USMC Gunny conducting counseling on some drunk Navy sailors from USS Saratoga.

The Gunny conducting squid training outside the Texas bar in Naples
1975 sketch by F. Lennox Campello

My grandfather

My paternal grandfather - a Galician immigrant to Cuba. Together with his brother he started out as a ditch digger in Guantanamo at the beginning of the last century, sleeping in the woods and saving money to eventually buy a cow, and then they began to sell milk while they alternated working as ditch diggers in the growing city, which was one of the first in all the Americas with underground sewers. 

By 1959 he owned a large estate and provided milk for most of the region around Guantanamo. By 1961 the Socialists of the Castro Revolution had shown their true cards and declared themselves Communists and confiscated all of his assets. Within two years there were milk shortages all over the island and they remain to this day.

This is what we Americans of Cuban ancestry mean when we say that "we've seen that movie and know how it ends..."

Calls for Entry: HoCo Open

 All Howard County artists are invited to participate in HoCo Open 2021, HCAC’s annual, non-juried exhibit showcasing local artists. In lieu of a one-day drop-off, entries will be accepted online beginning November 5th on a first-come basis, one entry per artist, until 100 submissions have been received. The drop-off dates for the exhibit are December 17 & 18. Accepted artists will be provided with instructions for scheduling a specific time to drop off their artwork at the Center for the Arts.

HoCo Open will be on display from January 9 – February 20, 2021. For the full prospectus and to apply, visit their website.