Posted by pancho from pool0175.cvx24-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net (209.179.210.175) on Thursday, January 16, 2003 at 8:27AM :
When I first met Jackie in '96, we invited them up to St Helena for a visit. I insisted my wife not cook ten things because I wanted us just to talk. I don't like sitting there with company while the woman of the home is forced to run back and forth feeding us all...I don't like the feeling of being served anyway...So instead of a table groaning with food, we had a grille for the kids and salmon for us.
The next time I saw Lincoln he gave me a sort of fork-lift you operate by hand...it could lift at least 600 pounds. I'd mentioned in passing my lousy back, which any sculptor worth his or her salt has and out of kindness and regard, he gave the thing to me. It was used but serviceable and I was extremely grateful for his thoughtfullness.
I also found out that on a vacation to Hawaii the year before, Lincoln had seen a bronze piece in a gallery there and almost bought it, he liked it so much. It was a bronze lion, a fairly good sized piece by a Norweigen sculptor named Vanderveen, who happened to cast his work at the same foundry in Monterey I did. He makes highly smooth and stylized animal sculptures that sell all over America and Europe. You'll never hear of him as a serious sculptor but he is very successful commercially. The price of this sculpture was $5,000.
I met Vanderveen one day at the foundry, nice man in his late 70's I think. At the time they were casting some skeleton sculptures for me...He said he liked them and would I be interested in selling? I suggested a trade instead...though I wouldn't want any of his pieces myself, I figured it was a good way to return the favor to Lincoln for the fork-lift device.
We did just that. He took the "Finger of Fate" and the "Adam and Eve" sculptures for one of his lions. I had them pack the thing just as they usually do and ship it to Lincoln's office...with a note from Vanderveen.
Lincoln called me the day he received it, excited like a kid with a new toy. His last words were, "owe you one, big time, buddy".
Thanks a lot Lincoln, you sure know how to repay a favor. You knew damn well the $6,000 wasn't a loan, like Jackie swore later it was. You knew you wrote that check out for the Hammurabi project but said you'd wait to see what new sculptures I'd make because you didn't care for the model. You said there was no rush.
You also know damn well I didn't swindle you on the "Great land Deal" in Mexico...both of these transactions were between you and I, man to Benz, with Jackie nowhere around. I called only one friend, from Mexico, about the beachfront property and got him involved. You were the one who asked me to get in on the deal...and when I gave you the name of the person down there to buy from, you asked me to do it for you...said I knew they guy and would I handle it. When we got burned later...ALL of us...you said not to worry, that we'd all taken a chance and lost, that it happens all the time with things too good to be true...and I believed you. I offered to give you a sculpture worth more than what you lost cause I felt badly...you said it wasn't necessary, forget it etc. And that was decent of you. The offer for the sculpture still goes and I have some appraised at more than you lost...twice as much in fact and you can have one for the price of casting alone. A $65,000 piece for about $4,000. Take it and welcome.
Then Jackie got a hold of you, put that half-nelson on what's left of you...and either you played along with her, or didn't know...when she signed a legal document saying I had asked you for a LOAN and I had KNOWINGLY swindled you on a land deal....doing it because, just like Shawn, she could skirt the edge because how was I going to prove otherwise? That when you can get away with something dirty...you SHOULD...because getting caught, or getting away with it, are the two "moral" points on your compass.
I mention this because people need to understand what lies behind my seemingly random and senseless 'attacks"...when it's just a matter of telling the simple, awful, truth about two people who let some German steel go to their heads.
You guys didn't turn out to be just "disloyal". You reached out and hurt my children...hurt my ability to support them...you cost Jeff money he could ill afford. You hurt people not just in their heart, but in every other way you could.
Neither Jeff or I did anything to hurt your business, ot hurt you financially. I had just barely begun to climb out of the hole any artist digs for himself, especially among our people. And besides myself there was the work, the placement of monuments for all of us for all posterity...you both slammed that as well...in your wife's mania for lashing back at anyone who wont get into bed with her...figuratively speaking...or not.
All your wife had to do, if she had just found out what I was "really" like, was steer clear of me. Deny me access to your home, her company...never buy from me again or mention me. But that wasn't enough, that wasn't the point. The point wasn't to leave me out of your loop, but to destroy me so I would learn my "lesson"...the one you must have learned well...the one she would reiterate to you in front of us...that if you ever dared leave her, she would make it so hot for you, you wouldn't have a pair of pants left in your name.
And you know she'll do it too.
See you in court...where you can decide how much of the truth you want to tell... under oath.
-- pancho
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