Czar Nicholas

“I started drawing and painting when I was 40. I spent my life saying I sure would like to me an artist, too bad I can’t draw.

One day I was having that same conversation with a bottle of Bacardi Dark, and my friend Bacardi wouldn’t hear of it, so I sat there with a pack of oil pastels and typewriter paper and drew drunk pictures til the high wore off. My friends and neighbors lied to me and told me I was good, so I kept doing it.”

Czar Nicholas was born in Austria, lived in Italy, then, leaving home at the age of 13, he spent decades on the road exploring the North American continent. Over the years he worked at many varied jobs, from picking cotton to being the general manager of a chain of bookstores, and is now considering going back on the road for the rest of his life.

“Every artist should use the great symbols of our species” he said to me while we were discussing one of his paintings, Madonna and Child.