The Meaning

“Flophouse Blues” is a tribute to the American Blues which started in flophouses like the one I have played at in Kansas City (Knuckleheads) along the railroad tracks of America.

At this time, things had changed drastically for me again. I was now no longer interested in organized religion or attending any kind of ministry and it seemed like I was in between heaven and hell on earth. This painting expresses that reality very well.

Despite knowing that I did not fit in anywhere or into any social clique or institution, somehow, I knew God was still with me (despite the many bad experiences and relational fallouts I experienced with religious zealots). After ten years of being away from the music culture, I found myself, once again, around a lot of different people including musicians and music fans who loved to watch live music and party with drugs and alcohol.

Blues Train

We see Little Walter on the left of the train coming down the mountain, Elmore James is on the right and Sonny Boy Williamson is at the front right. The “61” number on the steam engine reminds us of Highway 61 which stretched from the Mississippi Delta up to Chicago.

Flophouse

There is a flophouse to the right of the train, showing people dancing inside. These flophouses were very popular motels at the time for musicians who rode trains often sharing their music from town to town, city to city.

A Choice of Life or Death

Up above are spiritual innuendos shown in the spiraling stars coming out of the sky, revealing how people often lived their lives in the music culture. The king of hearts and the joker cards signify how we all must make a choice between life and death.

So Little Time

There is a clock behind them with jagged hour hands to express wasted time and an embryo, to symbolize the little time we have on this earth to choose life or death. There’s also a symbol of eternity behind the embryo to denote our decisions in life have an eternal impact for good or bad. Behind that is a tombstone that reads R.I.P. that asks an eternal question, “Will our souls rest in peace with the King of Hearts or be fooled by the Joker?”

Future Paradise?

Up top to the right (inside the stars), there is an eternal city with a beam of light coming out of it to attract people to enter. To the upper left, there are musical notes expressing the eternal glory of heaven and palm trees to express the future paradise of what it would be like to live in heaven forever.

Passion for Relationships

To the left of the musical notes, there is a burning heart, to express passion for authentic relationships with God and humans. Underneath it is a pistol that is pointed at a marijuana joint and a bottle of booze to symbolize musicians’ addictions that I saw leading us to death.

Rest and Peace

To the right of the burning heart, is a burning cross to express the love of God with jagged male and female symbols pointing up to it symbolizing the broken relationship with my parents. Below this is a dollar sign to show people’s desire for money and security that they often focused on. Under that is a peace symbol with three flying eyes next to it that represent the rest and peace of The Trinity without the burdens of the world.

The Process

One interesting thing about this piece is the trees coming down the mountain. They were not sketched out or planned and the effect of the moonlight contrasting with darkness of the trees really seem to make them “pop.”

This piece inspired me to do “Creation of the Blues” in the same year and both pieces hung at Knuckleheads for many months each.