I Shaved My Beard to Be Doc Holliday

You can pay with Bitcoin for my original paintings and prints on tjm.art.

This Halloween I went as Doc Holliday. Which meant the beard had to go.

Shaving for the part

Doc Holliday was a gambler with a sharp mustache, not a guy with a big beard. So on Halloween afternoon, a little after two, I got out the straight razor and the lather and went to work.

There's a point halfway through a shave like this where you're not either guy. The cheeks are gone, the mustache and the chin are still hanging on, and you look like you lost a bet. I took a picture of that moment, because why not.

Becoming Doc

By that night I was Doc. A tan cowboy hat from Ouray, Colorado. A red bow tie, a blue shirt, a dark vest, and a burgundy patterned jacket from Nordstrom. Holsters by Zatcabala Oregon Leathercraft of Eugene, Oregon (@oregonleathercraft on Instagram, zatcabala@gmail.com), which I found at the Revival festival in Chimacum. The mustache, styled. And a little tiny cup, the metal one in my hand in these photos.

Several women at the party were very excited about that jacket. Thank you, Nordstrom.

Photos by Sergey Avdeev

A carnival of a party

That night I went to a very wild party, set up as a carnival.

There was a squirt gun booth, a water gun booth, and a face-slapping booth. Two ways to get wet and one way to get slapped. At one point the carny and the face-slapping guy got into a fight. It was a staged show, I should say, before anyone worries about the face-slapping guy.

I also got an oracle reading from an ancient crone consulting the ancient gods. The oracle told me the first sign drawn is usually a bad one, because it means someone's watching. But the second and third signs canceled it out. So everything was great. I'll take it.

Treasure Blackjack

Then there was Treasure Blackjack, the table where people bet treasures. Nobody bet money. The house had its own pile of stuff to put up: books, a copper water bottle, crystals, knick-knacks. You brought your own things to bet against the house, and the dealer would find something of comparable value to match. I bet a singing bowl and won a copper water bottle. I'll take that trade.

I love this. It's gambling where the worst case is you go home with somebody's crystal instead of your own thing. Doc would have been right at home, and honestly a lot less likely to get shot.

Photos by Sergey Avdeev

It went late. That last picture is from almost four in the morning. Hat off, still grinning.

The gyroscope

The thing I keep coming back to from that night wasn't the costume or the cards, though. It was a toy.

“I also discovered the joy of gyroscope toys. It feels like when you're dancing with your eyes closed, the gyroscope feels like you're moving your hand over a higher dimensional object.”

That feeling, of touching the edge of a shape you can't fully see, is a lot of what I'm after when I paint. It's the same thing I'm chasing with the dancers in Neural Dance. You feel it moving before you can say what it is.

Come see the paintings

If you want a higher dimensional object of your own, the closest I can get you is a painting. My original paintings and prints are on tjm.art.

You can pay with Bitcoin for any original painting or print on tjm.art.