Our bikes by Ritter park in Huntington, West Virginia
A beeeyoootiful Sunday… that would be last Sunday the third. I finally had 20 seconds to get together with my buddy JB and ride to Rutland for some breakfast it Millie’s. It ain’t health food, but by golly… it’s home cooking! Then we rode down Ohio 7 past the Gavin Power Plant… down past Gallipolis… a great ride with the mighty Ohio River to our left.
We crossed the Ohio just south of Proctorville and found our way down to Ritter Park where our friend Butch Frazer placed his last statue. Butch was a great guy and quite a spiritual inspiration to me.
Butch's Earth Portal
Foto by Jerry Bayha
This quite a bit of stainless work by Butch. The welding techniques are awesome and artistic design is off the charts. Perhaps more on this another time… suffice it say.. it’s a moving piece. Butch wanted it to live in Ritter Park so folks could sit on it… kids could play on it… he probably wouldn’t have even minded the bits of graffiti.
In the last years of his life, Butch fought lung cancer… and wound up losing a lung to it. He spent some time with me down in my Studio at the Fur Peace Ranch recording an oral history of his life for his family. In the beginning he regaled us with harmonica tunes as he told his story. At the end, he no longer had enough breath to make a sound on the old mouth harp but the tales continued until he was done.
He may have struggled physically as he was working to complete Earth Portal… but his spirit was strong! He told be Jerry B. and myself on separate occasions, ‘There are no ripples on my pond!’ What a way to approach the end!
Earth Portal was dedicated on May 2, 1999… His work done at last, Butch passed on May 3, 1999… the next day… with no ripples on his pond!
Sleep well brother… gone, but not forgotten!
Well done brother!
Butch was a funny guy… and a rider as well. He would have appreciated our stop in Lesage, West Virginia on the ride home. Yep… Hillbilly Hotdogs. Yummy… good dogs and lots of down home philosophy.
I kept it clean for the blog!
Shiny side up folks!
Brothers of different Mothers in the wind again. Outstanding!!
And a Hppy Mothers Day to all you Mothers out there.
Don’t furget we love you!
Love and Peace Fur All
mutt
Nice photos, beautiful motorcycles, excellent sculpture and story of your friend. R.I.P.
Today in Los Angeles “Bill Graham and the Rock&Roll Revolution” exhibit at Skirball Cultural Center. Free on Thursdays.