Ted degrazia original painting alone man in the moon

Ted DeGrazia rode into the Superstition Mountains, a string of packhorses in tow. The packs were loaded with sleeping bags, camping gear, cameras and food. A bottle of scotch. They rode all afternoon and made camp in a valley of prickly pear and manzanita. There were ancient Indian dwellings in the cliffs above, a bright moon in the night sky.

Just because an artist's name is DeGrazia, it's not necessarily the Ted DeGrazia.

DeGrazia awoke in the morning and began to stack wood for a fire, teepee style, about shoulder high. He went to the saddlebags and fetched some Apache crosses, the kind used by crown dancers in ceremonies. He stuck them into the ground, draped a Yaqui deer headdress over one of them and laid a couple of gourd rattles on the ground. All his life, DeGrazia had struggled to earn a living as an artist.

For years, the public ignored him, galleries rejected him and critics had little good to say about his work. But he continued to paint, surviving a failed marriage, the Great Depression and lukewarm sales until at last his work caught on with the public. By that warm day in , his work was worth so much that the Internal Revenue Service told him it might create a tax problem for his heirs.

DeGrazia decided to make a statement to the agency. He invited some of his friends to ride with him into the Superstitions and they set up camp. Some of the horses had carried unsold paintings in their saddlebags, which DeGrazia gathered up and took over to the stack of wood.