American bullfighter John Fulton (1932-1998) led a colorful life in and out of the bullrings of Spain — and distinguished himself as an artist, most notably through paintings colored with the blood of the bulls he killed in the ring. Friend and fellow artist Britt Zaist has held onto 80 of Fulton's works, while selling much of his work though Galeria Izamal in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

www.forkeepspodcast.com

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I was contacted by David Peterkofsky to do a podcast on his site: www.forkeepspodcast.com of one of our Galeria Izamal artists, the late John Fulton.

His podcast is about collections but per David “this podcast doesn´t just focus on “the stuff”. It also shines its spot light on the mindset of the featured collectors…For Keeps explores the things we collect – and why we do it in the first place.”

My husband, Henry Vermillion and I have run Galeria Izamal starting in 1992 until its physical closing in 2021. It is now a virtual gallery online. We have represented John´s work since 1994 when he took his retirement fight here in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico (where he began both his art and his bullfighting careers). We have a good deal of John´s work which at our late age will probably remain in our collection. You can go online www.galeriaizamal.com to see John´s work/to see the biographical details/to see some unique techniques that only he used (i.e. painting with the blood of the bull). The art there speaks for itself.

Ideally this podcast will present more about John – the man – not just Fulton, the artist. It´s limited as it is from my point of view; but, I tried to put information gathered from his friends, his books, stories written and told about him-and a little from John himself.

Though John had little money, he was known for his generosity. We witnessed this time and time again, when John would have us give his sale money to matadors here in Mexico who needed it. He was also known for his hospitality and help opening his house in Seville to aspiring matadors he tutored without pay.

Curro Camacho, John´s friend of more than 35 years wrote in his book “Our Friend John Fulton “Quixote”: “John´s life and art have fused to cross barriers of time, culture and medium. This Renaissance man was Matador de Toros, painter, sculptor, engraver, jewelry designer, author, illustrator, taurine poster artist, designer of matadors´ costumes, photographer, book layout designer, champion fencer (as such he served as the actor Peter O´Toole´s double during the filming of ”Lawrence of Arabia”), research guide to James Michener in his 1968 book IBERIA, flamenco dancer, film, radio and TV personality, lecturer, instructor, tutor and bilingual raconteur, combining the “gracia” of Sevilla with his own inimitable wit. Above all, he was “John Quixote”, living “the impossible dream, holding fast to his ideal, living the lines from “The Man of La Mancha” before they had been composed:

“…Who knows where madness lies?

Too much sanity may be madness,

And the maddest of all--- to see life as it is,

And not as it ought to be.”

Our website does a good basic job of presenting the artist and the work he/she does. But it doesn´t tell a lot about the artist. The goal is to sell the art work not necessarily to sell the person who created it. I want to sell this unique and generous man and to keep his memory alive.

In 1992, I was one of a handful of painters having coffee in the patio of the ancient Meson de San Jose on Calle Mesones. We were commiserating about how the three art galleries in town (there were only three) were not selling much of our work. They stuck our stuff in their bodegas where they never saw the light, etc. etc.

“Wait”, said one of us. “Look at that!” It was a “FOR RENT” sign on one of the little locales around the patio. “Let’s start our own gallery!” And, in November of that year Galeria Izamal opened in that 15 by 15 foot space. To invent a phrase, the rest is history.

To celebrate our 29th anniversary, all day Saturday, November 27 Galeria Izamal artists will offer discounts---many of them substantial---on their work. The discounts will apply that day only. Most artists will allow a deposit to be put down that day to hold the piece. Our official celebration is from 6-8 pm. Our spacious new downtown location is at Jesus 25, Centro - just a few steps past Cuadrante.

Over the years, Galeria Izamal has featured the art of Jaime Goded, Peter Leventhal, Marion Perlet, Keith Miller, Stan Goldberg (the creator of “Archie” comics), Roberto Lopez Fuentevilla, Gerardo Ruiz, Jesus Real, Elena Baca, Juan Carlos Cazares and many others. In our beginning years, through a connection with a Mexico City gallery, we also showed work of famed Mexican artists Francisco Zuniga, Rufino Tamayo, Jose Luis Cuevas, and Roberto Montenegro.

Galeria Izamal is and has always been a co-op, which means that each of the members share all gallery expenses and work. Since the gallery takes no commission from artist´s sales, artist member’s prices are generally forty or fifty per cent less than in commercial galleries.

Current gallery artists are Ted Davis, photographer; painters Juan Ezcurdia (also showing jewelry from his signature designs), Jeff Ferst, Javier Garcia, Cissy Smith Marks, Lawrence Selevan, Henry Vermillion, Britt Zaist and the late artist/matador John Fulton; jeweler, Wolfgang Lichter; and sculptor, Sue Griffin.

The gallery is open daily from 11 am to 6:30 pm.

I have been doing black and white gesture drawings for over forty years. I bill myself as the one in the gallery with the short attention span - which is true. I am also the one most copied. I got lucky here in San Miguel de Allende with the very first bull I drew ‘Sangre Brava’. Many people associate that bull with San Miguel primarily due to our last location of 22 years next to the Angela Peralta Theater. Many tourists bought that bull on tee shirts, caps, serigraphs and cards. Over the years, I have seen that image in Spain embroidered on a leather jacket, here in SMA on a taurine school´s tee shirts (they actually left my signature on assuming it was part of the design), used in Mexico City in 1999 by the columnist for “La Aficion”, Adiel Bolio for his column “Taurinotas”, used on waiter´s shirts in a bar in Guanajuato and on and on! And all without my permission. Still – I milked that bull for a lot of money so I guess it´s fair to be used by others.

The most blatant use of one of my designs, ‘La Catrina con Su Perro’ actually came with a certificate of authenticity by another artist. A client marched in the gallery after spotting my serigraph of this design and announced that I could not be the artist because she had a certificate with the real artist´s name.

That was almost as good as the woman who once came into the gallery saying that she used to draw like me but then she got psychological help.  Honestly, I am not making this up.

I am sure anyone that has been in this business long enough has lots of stories. And there are more to come.

…and as the gallery manager, I´ve been studying them close up for almost 29 years. Some are funny. Such as the guy in a safari vest making little sandwiches carefully folded in our napkins to go in all of the many pockets of his vest. Some are amazing. We stash extra refreshments under the table. I tried to refill the table from there – only to have my way physically barred by a woman who announced that she had gotten there first! Another time, a woman demanded plates so she could take food home and was miffed we had none. Double dippers are scary as are unattended children. Dogs are ok. Then there are the local freeloaders – who never glance at the artwork and unabashedly eat and drink. But they are colorful, harmless and needy – possibly failed artists who need food and drink to buoy their spirits. Mostly, it´s a nice time for the artist gallery members to reacquaint themselves. That´s a study, too. The flamboyant artists are great at schmoozing. The withdrawn ones not good at pushing their work. There are the zany ones. Marion Perlet (god rest her soul) was barred from future openings after walking up to a client-making a value judgment and announcing in a strong German accent “You can´t afford my work!  Buy a postcard.” Wow - I just had a flash back of that and so many more.

Soon – we will be able to have openings again…and to tell more tales about them. Please come.

But the best part of my youth were the summer vacations. I spent most of mine as a kennel girl for my aunt who raised show dogs:  Boxers to show in Madison Square Garden.  I took care of at least 28 Boxers at a time. That´s a lot of poo! I can rival anyone in the intestinal fortitude department.  My one big secret – never breathe thru your nose when cleaning up! But I loved all the dogs especially one called WONDER DOLL OF PINE OAKS. “Dolly” won best-in-show at The Garden and had a good life. 

The one downer though in those days – the ears and the tail had to be cut for Boxer show dogs. Now when I do commissions for Boxers – that is no longer a prerequisite. So Boxers have a place in my heart.

I always wanted to go to Africa and in 1997 – I did.  I´ve always been someone´s daughter or wife so going solo was new to me. Henry stayed home to run the gallery (actually we couldn´t afford to both go!).  I took an enormous sketchbook and a lot of carbon paper.  Each night, I would write to him on thin air line paper (remember that paper?) – mailing him the original the next morning and keeping the (carbon) copy in the sketchbook. Turns out-he only started receiving my letters after I got home!

The trip began in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Then we went to Cape Town, South Africa, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Johannesburg, Santiago, Chile and back to Mexico. Every day was a day out of National Geographic. Taking this tour with 37 other people made every day a drama. I loved it all.  The most outstanding memories are of a place called The Ark in Kenya where you could see rhinoceros, hyenas and more from three different levels-one being an open bunker at ground level.

You signed a release coming into each of these park reserves so that if you didn´t come out – they were in the clear!

More memories of a champagne brunch out in the bush near the hippo pool in Kenya, of the Masai, of falling in love with wart hogs, of being surrounded by hydrax (little friendly furry animals), of carefully walking past baboons, of having a lion mark our Land Rover, of having a hippo feed outside my door in the Masai Mara... and many, many more.

I did a lot of drawings on the trip but discovered in the move to the new house that years on damp walls had destroyed them.  So I had to throw away over 25 framed pieces- a number of them that were from this trip. 

I have many photos of the trip but few pieces of the art work. Memory will have to serve.

It´s been a very long month since we´ve moved to our new home. Had a lot of excitement: new refrigerator not working with tons of frozen (not for long) shrimp + inside, faulty plumbing, necessary new light installations, rewiring, new washer and dryer (I still haven´t had time to translate the instructions to operate them), no fiber optics-then finally an installation...no phones- then 2- then the necessary 5 any day now! This is a big house. Begging Telmex to keep our old telephone number which still hasn´t happened. No TV-then Satellite installation and Mega Cable...And on and on. It will be a very neat place - assuming we finish it before the lease is up!

Henry wrote and illustrated a book on bonsai and has been systematically torturing them for years. In the photo attached - the windswept one is over 30 years old!

This house is fortified with locks on everything and heavy iron bars - seems like a very good neighborhood but perhaps a long time ago it was a target.

All I know is that this place could handle a siege. Check out that bolted door! I got locked out there.

This is the entrance to the front yard - no longer used! I went outside - closed the door - it locked. The front gate was locked. I yelled hysterically till the maid came and opened it up! Fixed that door immediately - left the key in with a spare under the squatting angel in that alcove. Exciting-no?

This is like reading "The Perils of Pauline"... but it´s becoming home.