MOJAVE MULESKINNERS

"My concept of the posters is to make someone smile, perchance maybe even to laugh."

Biography:

Gene worked in graphics and printing for many years, starting when graphics had to be line drawn and airbrushed by hand. He has retired from the hard labor of printing and now enjoys utilizing computer programs to create his Old West characters. They are fanciful and clever, bringing a smile to the face of viewers, yet he tries to put a little bit of authenticity into each depiction. For example, he did a drawing in 1983 called “The Pony Express” that he estimates has been reprinted approximately 800,000 times and distributed all over the world. In this depiction, an arrow pierces the hat of the fleeing express rider. Middleton notes that the colors of the arrow are authentic to those used by the Comanche when the Pony Express was running. Other creations include lonesome cowboys celebrating Christmas in the desert, a Mexican bandolero, Native American warriors, Western scouts, outlaws and bandits, stagecoach drivers and dudes, all of which have been used in printing shows in California, the Guttenberg Festival, Chicago, the Graphics Expo, and in Phoenix for a 4 year period.

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http://www.artistrising.com/galleries/GeneMiddleton

Artist's Statement