My First 40 Years

Humble

1. Humble 1992 oil on linen 36x44” private collection; Boston, Massachusetts
   I originally misnamed this eatery (on the edge of South Boston and the South End) HoJo’s, thinking it had been a former Howard Johnson.
   But Stephen Paine, a wonderful collector, who saw the painting, pointed out that it had been an Esso, or Exxon station, and that this dome was their signature, much like the golden arches for McDonald’s. Another name for Exxon in the 1960’s was Humble, so I ate Humble pie and renamed it Humble. The building was a fried chicken place when I painted it; later I saw it had become a pizza place. It’s still there and now green.
   This was kind of a scary area to paint; it was isolated and a lot of homeless people were around, and maybe some addicts? I found a place to paint it across the street and under a tree. Nevertheless, I had no scary incidents throughout the summer of painting this large canvas on the corner of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Ave.