I recently had the pleasure to be reminded that beautiful artworks are not the sole domain of museums and galleries. Finding myself in a friend’s basement, I was introduced to this gorgeous, fantastical painting by her half-uncle leaning against the wall. Shimmering shades of gold paint capture Walter James Lewis’s (“Louie’s”) self-portrait from 1968. Accompanying the artist is Baccus (Bacchus?), some wine grapes and a cocktail glass, birds in flight, a quite singular rain cloud, slithering snake, and other manner of imagery and symbols.

Curious about Louie, I learned that as a young man he became extremely ill from eating too many green apples and required surgery that left him with chronic pain. Standing 5’8″ tall he only weighed 105 pounds when he was discharged from the army after serving 17 months. He then started a baby shoe bronzing enterprise followed by, among other endeavors, a door-to-door photographic portrait business. Louie also spent time as a hippie driving around the country in a Cadillac with an expensive camera, and he adopted a half-wolf found by the side of the road that ate upholstery and washing machines. He also gave Pan (a sometimes-companion of Bacchus) statues as wedding presents and was a loving brother, husband, and father. Louie suffered from bouts of binge drinking due to his chronic pain, which led to stays in VA hospitals and psychiatric wards.

It was there that Louie painted this powerful self-portrait with Baccus. The painting’s narrative structure, while somewhat ambiguous, instantly captured my imagination. I am not sure whether Louie and Baccus were about to engage in an life-and-death struggle or head out to an absolute bender of a party but… either way I know it must have been an epic scene that followed. Sadly, this is Louie’s only surviving painting and the rest of the series must be left to our imaginations. The painting so deftly captures something essential about the struggle of being human and our inner pathos that I was surprised to learn Louie had no artistic training.

Louie died at only 45 years old, in a dingy Santa Monica hotel room. His half-sister told me, “His whole life breaks my heart. I often think of him and wish things could have been different for him. Fate was cruel to him.” But we are lucky that she saw something in this painting, so full of life, that was worth keeping and sharing with us all.

Louie and his half-sister

A Wedding Gift

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: CORWIN LEVI

Corwin is a visual artist working in design, illustration, bookmaking, curating, and writing. As an artist, he has attended over twenty artist residencies. He has also have lived in eighteen cities across twelve states. Along with Michelle Aldredge, he co-created Mirror Mirrored: An Artists’ Edition of 25 Grimms’ Tales. He is currently remixing vintage game boards and making a book from illustrations of Alice in Wonderland.