MUDFOOT AT LETOON
![](https://www.tricivenola.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/24Mudfoot-at-Letoon72-1024x354.jpg)
Tumbled columns in brittle reeds & sunken stone blocks; mud of centuries sucking me down. — Mehmet, my self-appointed guide — Stuck in the mud this shapeless mass used to be my foot! — Drifted sand over a mosaic harp of Apollo, a bow of Artemis. Leta, mother of both by Zeus* stopped here to bathe the infant dieties. The towns[people chased her off. She turned them into frogs. So naturally they built her a temple right here on the spot. About 525 BC. *All those sculptures of “Leda and the Swan?” —— “…looks beautiful in the guidebook but in the dog days of August, when I was drawing it with sweat dripping off my face and staining the page, it was sun-baked, crusted mud. My self-appointed guide Mehmet, a lithe 12-year-old, scampered nimbly across the old scored stones, while I stepped carefully between the clumps of brittle dead reeds and broke through right down into sucking sticky swamp. My foot felt like it was being digested. I pulled up hard, swearing at Mehmet, and nothing happened for the longest time. I was wearing a pair of flip-flop platform sandals from LA. I was fond of them; I would not let my foot slip out, and finally with a great sucking sound the sandal came free loaded with about five pounds of mud. I limped out of the temple swamp and it took a helpful attendant with a hose and a brush ten minutes to get the mud off, but I got a hell of a drawing.” —TV, another email from summer 2000
CITY ON THE PLAIN
![](https://www.tricivenola.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/44City-on-the-Plain72-1-1024x353.jpg)
View from the theater across the stadium to the round towers — On the vast coastal plain the ruined city of PERGE—— Drawn many months later from photographs I took that day with Pierre, at my sister’s kitchen table in California.——
THE ROUND TOWERS
![](https://www.tricivenola.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/45The-Round-Towers72-2-1024x469.jpg)
PERGE fell to Alexander the Great but rose again many times over only to fall on this plain where it lies now finally & forever. — From a photo taken August 2000 with Pierre & Abdullah——
TOWERS UP CLOSE
![](https://www.tricivenola.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/47Towers-Up-Close72-2-1024x406.jpg)
PERGE Pierre in the ruins at PERGE August 2000. From photos – it must have been 120º in there that day — Tower close-up in the relentless eternal late afternoon sun—— That was quite a night there at my sister’s kitchen table. I was up drawing until dawn.
A SLANT ON PERGE
![](https://www.tricivenola.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/46A-Slant-on-Perge72-1024x451.jpg)
… I don’t know how old these towers are or what they were; I only know I want to see them again — From a photo taken August 2000. Rendered months later in California – Oh, how I wish I knew when I could go back!! Will I ever dance or walk again? Of course I will this is just fear & self-pity.——
TURKISH FLASHBACK 1
![](https://www.tricivenola.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/48-Turkish-Flashback-1-72-1024x364.jpg)
Noah/Mt Ararat — Mata Hari/Istanbul —St Peter – St Paul – Virgin Mary/Ephesus —- Suleyman the Magnificent/Istanbul — Alexander the Great/Anatolia —- King Midas/Gordium — Achilles/Troy —Santa Claus/Myra — Cleopatra/Side—— Here’s the actual original of this very popular graphic, which I augmented digitally and sell as a poster.
TURKISH FLASHBACK 2
![](https://www.tricivenola.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/49Turkish-Flashback-2-72-1.jpg)
Sir Richard Burton/En route — Aimee Dubucq DeRivery the French Sultana/Istanbul — Apollo – Leta- Artemis/Letoon —Ataturk/Istanbul-Ankara —Vlad the Impaler Count Dracula/Ottoman Empire — King Ladislas of Poland—— more characters…
TURKISH FLASHBACK FINAL
![](https://www.tricivenola.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/TURKISH-FLASHBACK-new72-1024x241.jpg)
Because anyone reading this far is a fan, here’s the digitally-completed release version. If I drew it today it would be twice as long!