Paul Laffoley
(b. 1940, Cambridge, Massachusetts)
PICKMAN’S MEPHITIC MODELS
2004
Oil and acrylic paint, vinyl letters, India Ink, photo-collage, velvet
drapes,
human thigh bones, on linen canvas.
68” X 52”
In
May of 1980 I received an announcement in the post from “The First
Annual H.P.Lovecraft Festival” to be held in the basement of Sayles
Hall on the campus of Brown University at 4:00 P.M. on Friday October
31,1980. Since I have read the horror stories of Lovecraft and found his
world-view fascinating [ a false atheism disguising a self-discovered
mythology], and I did graduate from Brown , I decided to go to Providence
just to visit my Alma Mater once again, but I was also filled with curiosity
about Lovecraft.
The auditorium was not very crowded and there were no festive decorations
,only a list of speakers who had known Lovecraft for a few years before
he died, and a second string of writers who had known those who had known
him firsthand. The speakers varied in age from kids who were 22 like S.T.Joshi
those who were like “old men “ to me like Willis Conover at
59, and those even older who had contracted throat cancer and became laryngectomees
and had to use a voice prosthetic to speak. While speaking they sounded
like the “Old Ones” from deep space on the other side of Reality.
When the lectures were finished, the moderator mentioned two events for
members of the audience in which they could participate. The first was
a single file walk around Providence on the painted footfalls of H.P.Lovecraft
[ 1890-1937]. These footfalls were also those his spiritual mentor Edgar
Allan Poe [1809 – 1849]. The other activity that was offered was
to go up to the top floor of The John Hay Library where they displayed
Lovecraft memorabilia in hermetically sealed vitrines . I chose the second.
Climbing the large stairs to a room I never realized existed in The John
Hay, I felt it was like entering a room from a horror movie. It is there
for the moment you see it, but gone when you return a few days later.
The interior of this perfect square high ceiling room appeared to be designed
in 18th Century English Georgian, typical of early American Universities.
And , of course, Brown was founded in 1764. The room’s oak paneled
wainscots, coffered ceilings, unadorned window-apertures and fanlights,
were echoed in the design of the vitrines.
I was surprised to see so very few people milling about, and those that
were there would stop and stare and hover, like Las Vegas “one armed
bandit” gamblers over some story Lovecraft had hand written in his
anal-retentive script, or a list of his favorite ice cream flavors, perhaps
a cover of “WEIRD TALES” from its founding year of 1923, a
copy of the accursed “NECRONOMICON” in bad condition, and
some snap-shots of Sonia H. Greene the older woman who helped Lovecraft
get over his mother’s death in 1921 by marrying him in 1924 and
divorcing him in 1929.
Altogether there were 12 vitrines arranged in a square. In the center
space was a rotating stool. On the stool sat a man dressed in black that
resembled “Ikabod Crane” who carried a long wooden rod [ that
looked like a painter’s maulstick]. I discovered that soon enough
as I spent [according to him] too long over a reproduction of a Tibetan
mountain scene painted by Nicolas Roerich [ 1874-1947], that was used
to illustrate the story “ At The Mountains of Madness”. I
thought someone was tapping me on the .shoulder. When I looked up it was
the gaunt man on the stool poking me with his stick saying: ”Move
on”. Becoming annoyed at this rude behavior, I countered with “Where
are the illustrations for “Pickman’s Model” ? I am a
Boston painter and I like that story of Lovecraft the best. And I know
he liked the paintings of Heinrich Füssli [1741-1825] especially
the one that made him famous called “The Nightmare”. “
Yes he did , sir. We keep some of Pickman’s work in the next room”.
“What do you mean – Pickman”s work ? Are you by any
chance implying that Pickman was a real person and an artist from Boston
and not just a figment of Lovecraft’s imagination ?” “
He was very much alive and may be yet. Richard Upton Pickman was born
on Joy Street in the Beacon Hill section of Boston Massachusetts on November
1, [All Saint”s Day] 1893. That made him a contemporary of Mr. Lovecraft.
And by the way are you with today’s conference, or a member of the
Brown University of the Rhode Island School Of Design communities ?”
“ If you mean by that, did I graduate from Brown ? Yes I did”.
“ Very good sir, step this way”.
There were so few people left in the large room ,he felt comfortable about
leaving his stool and opening a side door which led into a climate controlled
smaller room.. A few students, I assumed they were from R.I.S.D., were
painting copies of some of the paintings that hung on the walls. What
I saw on those walls struck me dumb. I had to turn away from the paintings
for a minute in order to suppress a retch. After awhile I became accustomed
to their bizarre appearances, I noticed 4 paintings which seemed less
figurative. Looking at them more closely I realized they were not abstract
paintings. Instead they seemed almost like photographs of strange creatures
put through a blender, resulting in images that looked like they were
executed by an artist whose left hand painted as did Pablo Picasso [1881-1973],
and whose right hand imitated Francis Bacon [1909 -1992]. I was so absorbed
by my thoughts, I almost failed to notice a young painter with not one
but four easels grouped around him copying four of these “strange
creatures”. He went from one copy-canvas to the next and so forth
, and then back to the first in what appeared to be outrageous flurry
of activity , that gave him the aura of being possessed. Even his breathing
was rapid and angry from behind clenched teeth.
At this point my curiosity got the better of me . Since he was facing
away from me I came up behind him and tapped him lightly on the shoulder.
He burst into chaos and screaming. One the easels fell. I picked it up
along with the half completed painting. “He began to shout :”Get
away from me , or I’ll destroy your life unto the third generation”.
Taken aback by his hostile behavior, I started for the door. But I stopped
when I heard the voice of a very beautiful girl nearby. “ Don’t
mind him mister he’s nuts”. And she spoke directly to the
young man. “Arnie, stop it . You’re supposed to answer the
questions of people who come in here . And remember what Mister Whateley
said , If you act up once more , he will never let back in here”.
That threat seemed to cut through his emotional explosion. Now perfectly
calm, he addressed me . “May I help you , Sir “ ,in tones
reminiscent of the man in the main room on the stool…
[ to be continued next time…]
Robery Guffy: The painting you're working on now is about Lovecraft?
Paul Laffoley: It's called "Pickman's Mephitic Models," based on the story. Certain things about it many people don't realize. Pickman was a real painter who lived between 1888 and 1926. Now, there's a question mark [gesturing toward the writing in the margins of the painting], because Lovecraft claims that he turned into a ghoul. God knows how old he is now.
RG: Well, we know he reappears in The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath as a ghoul. So, let me get this straight, you're saying Pickman really lived in Boston?
PL: Yeah. That's what I'm saying. In other words, the reason why I found out about that is that I went to Brown University. I belong to the Lovecraft Society, which meets at the University. They do things like follow in Lovecraft's footsteps, just like he followed in Edgar Allan Poe's footsteps. I mean the actual footfalls, you know, like they're going out looking for sasquatch, this kind of stuff. I mean, these are really dedicated people when it comes to Lovecraft. But in the top floor of the John Hay Library, you have all of Lovecraft's archives. And messing around in there, I noticed, I said, what are these paintings? And the librarian told me, "Well, those are Pickman's paintings." I said, "I thought this was like something he made up, like The Necronomicon, that kind of stuff." And he said no, that the guy actually existed. He was a mediocre painter, living in Boston at that time, painting for the Boston Art Club, and places like that. We're not talking avant garde galleries here. But Boston is not an avant garde place. It stays literally 15 to 20 years behind New York at all times. I mean, even New York isn't in any great shape anymore in relation to the rest of the world. But at a certain point Pickman got this studio in the north end of Boston, which at that time was the first area where people lived when they first came to Boston. And the reason they did that, they were defending their position, and in order to really defend it, by 1700 they had dug underground tunnels all through that area so people could go up in a house and then not be seen by the enemy attacking them.
RG: I remember that from the story.
PL: The tunnels were used first in the Revolutionary War. The next time they were used is during the time of moving slaves from the south on big ships, and when they would land they'd instantly go down into those tunnels, until the slave ships that were trying to catch them, coming up from Chesapeake Bay or West Virginia, got tired and went away. And the story is... You've read the whole story?
RG: Sure.
PL: Eliot, the narrator, goes down into these tunnels with Thurber…
RG: Wait. Thurber's the narrator, who's talking to Eliot.
PL: Right, you're right. So Eliot brings him down and Thurber starts hearing rustlings and stuff down there. He's looking at these God-awful paintings, very realistic renderings of demons, as they're going deeper and deeper into the inner sanctum. And then suddenly Eliot disappears and Thurber grabs something that he thinks is a background shot of a photograph. When he gets home he realizes that this was actually the demon that Pickman had taken a snapshot of, and that he was using it to help him paint the thing from real life. And so I've always wanted to do a painting on this, but this has nothing to do with the fact that it's going to be in the Satan show. It's just that it's been on my mind for years, and this is a perfect time to do it.
Okay. Now, the thing is, once I discover that these paintings are actually in the John Hay Library, I ask them, "Can I come back and take pictures of them?" The guy says, "Absolutely not. This is like a museum. The only thing you can do is, you or a sketch artist can sketch these things, otherwise it'd be like going into a museum and borrowing stuff. You can't do that. The things would be ruined, taking them out of the case and all that kind of stuff." So I said okay. I got a friend of mine and said, "Let's go down and do some visualization of that stuff. That's how I got the things that're there [referring to a series of four sketches hanging on the wall of his upstairs studio]. Arnie Clapman, that's my friend's name, I hope he's going to come to the show, he decided to do the first sketch. So I'd say stuff like, "No, no, that's wrong, look at this here." So we were working these things out together to get a pretty good rendition of what they actually look like. There's quite a number of paintings that Pickman did. So I picked basically the four juiciest ones. They're not really the way they're described in the story, because Lovecraft's talking about something that almost sounded like Andrew Wyeth or Norman Rockwell, you know, the dogs playing poker and this kind of stuff. In other words, that isn't what Pickman was all about. He was depicting the suffering of Satan, you see, through these demons. Because the whole theory of what Satan is, it's Lucifer, the highest of the seraphim, the bearer of God's light, who at a certain point comes to believe he is what is being revealed to him.
So, I began to realize that Lucifer is this creature who, having received an infinite revelation, believed he was God. So that's the first sin of pride. It's also a moment at which the first transsubstantiation occurs. And he becomes Satan, which is like... This was a flash, an instant. He becomes a humanoid, but he has an infinite number of physical senses, each of which are as different as eyes are from your ears. If you can imagine, we only have five or six senses, and we have trouble even distinguishing those when people are in synaesthesia. So he goes through all the seven deadly sins, right down the list, finally to wrath. He's lusting after knowledge in this way, and so he sees the universe as a non-supernatural example of cosmic art. Now, we know this is what Lovecraft was into. Because he kept talking about how he wasn't interested in religion. In a heaven state there is no religion, meaning that you're seeing the whole thing ... I mean, to worship something means that it's something beyond you, right? In other words, it's not being revealed to you.
So here was the situation. For years Lovecraft was defined as an atheist. Well, he wasn't saying anything about what he really was at all. He wasn't even an agnostic. That's exactly what the situation is, in other words, when you enter an eternal realm. You've got to know there is no religion. So it's literally a non-supernatural state of cosmic art. This is what this creature experiences, who then becomes Satan, and the moment he becomes Satan he's pulled back into eternity. He loses instantly, loses all these senses. And as it's happening he's going right down to wrath. And so what he's doing is, he's putting on a show that he isn't suffering.
Look at all the stuff the Existentialists did. You can start with Picasso, you know, and then Francis Bacon and other guys like that. What they were doing is depicting suffering. And that's exactly what a demon is, he's pretending that he isn't. So he can get more people down there. You know, misery loves company, that's the whole thing. So that's basically the pitch that I'm working on.
RG: S.T. Joshi once said that Lovecraft was creating an anti-mythology, in the sense that he was turning basic theological concepts upside down and placing hell outside, in space...
PL: Yes, in an extraterrestrial realm. The thing is, where you gonna place it? From the time of Dante, when you have the Ptolemaic universe, you had God on the outside like a hypersphere, and then in the center you have the Earth, all the seven heavens and layers, and then you have the Mount of Purgatory and Hell right in the center, and here's Satan flapping his wings and he keeps making the lake of Cocytus ice so you can't get out. So, again, where Heaven and Hell are, who the hell knows that now? Because we've got so many dimensions going. I don't think one person could ever make a total theological statement about that. That, I think, is impossible, because then... The whole thing that Dante did was summed up in the medieval world. It's like St. Thomas Aquinas, the Summa Theologica. He didn't invent it, he just put it all in one package. You get twelve fat books there sitting in any library. Whereas... I think if Joshi thinks Lovecraft was doing anything like that, just throwing together all this stuff to form a kind of anti-mythology, that's where I would disagree with him.
RG: Do you think Lovecraft was actually an atheist or...?
PL: No no, no no no. I think he recognized what he was dealing with, he was dealing with demons. And he was dealing with creatures that're suffering. There's no way out of this suffering. I think... You know, Mick Jagger's "Sympathy for the Devil." I think it was inspired by that. You don't know who's reading what, you know. It just comes out once in a while in the pop culture. And so, I would say that it's probably impossible for a lot of people to even think what Lovecraft's theological state was. He could've been trying to do a Marx to Hegel, that kind of thing, in other words, turn the thing upside down and crawl around inside it. But, look, the guy was eating poorly, he had like a quart of ice cream a day. He was suffering constantly near the end. He wasn't concerned with his body at all, not the way we're concerned with our bodies nowadays.
I think that the phrase "a non-supernatural cosmic work of art" is what he would say that the devil had seen, or Satan had seen, in that instant. Like this orgasm of knowledge, where he sees the universe in a way that we can never see. But then that gets taken away. Of course, revelation is always taken away. So then he is thrust into some kind of outer space realm, like here [pointing toward the painting in progress]. In other words, he's recognized he's gone through R'lyeh, the Sunken City of R'lyeh, and then Cthulhu, the extraterrestrial, calls his band of worshippers home to recognize him as the anti-christ. This is all in The Necronomicon, something Lovecraft actually did make up.
RG: Well, you know, Colin Wilson claimed that Winfield Lovecraft, Lovecraft's father, was a Freemason, part of the Boston Freemasons, and speculated that The Necronomicon might have been real, something Winfield saw in the local Masonic Lodge and perhaps brought home with him one night. Young Lovecraft tiptoes downstairs and flips through a couple of pages late one night….
PL: Yeah, okay. I like Colin Wilson, mainly because he never went to school. When you don't go to school you can say anything you want like that and not have to worry. [Laughs] And I would bet that some of the things he's saying are correct. But how much, who knows?