House of Joy.Since there were very few woman in the frontier towns the brothels flourished. Also the towns were wood frame buildings and an errant cigarette or chimney fire the whole town would be ablaze. The Madame from the House of Joy went to the young firefighters, you save the my business you get a lifetime pass. The only heritage building left in the town. – Acrylic on Canvas

Description

House of Joy

30″x40″

oil on canvas.

The Inspiration

To become a cowboy all you needed was guts and a horse! If you had guts you could always steal the horse.

It only took a couple of decades in the old West and cowboys became immortal as American folk heroes. They were called legends in Levi’s. They were independent, hard-working and self-reliant. They made tracks in history that the farmer could never plow under.

However, the word cowboy has come to represent gunfighters, gamblers, outlaws and real cowboys. The characteristic wide-brimmed Stetsons were utilitarian. The cowboy hat was used for multi purposes. It served as a water pitcher for them and their horse, to fan fires, and to keep the dust, sun and rain off their heads. A Cowboys favorite phrase is “Most folks dress-up but cowboys dress down.” A cowboy rode a $10 horse and a $40 saddle.”

However, the real talent a cowboy has in making a horse performs is the “lightness of hand” on the part of the horseman.

The lariat or rope was the most important tool of the cowboy. A rope enabled a 150 pound man on a horse to easily throw a 1000 pound cow.

However it was the horses that made the cowboy. The range mongrel or Mustang was a sturdy unhampered descendant of the early Spanish breeds.

A man on a horse is historically superior to a foot soldier. Fifty Spanish conquistadors, men mounted on extremely well-trained horses conquered the whole Aztec empire of hundreds of thousands of people!