Hazel Stilton Hotsnatch

1. Hazel Stilton Hotsnatch

Early Life
Hazel Stilton was born near Poteet, Texas on July 8, 1949. Her parents, Lavinia and Edwin Stilton, Sr. had three children. Hazel was preceded by the oldest, her brother Edwin "Bubba" Stilton, Jr., and her sister Joyce "Sissy" Stilton. Little is known of Hazel's relationship with her parents. Although Hazel infrequently mentioned her father, acquaintances report that from as early as the age of eleven she was seen parading around the front room in fishnet hose and a French maid's uniform carrying a tray of martinis. Lavinia Stilton was a strange and silent woman who rarely left the house. Rail thin and towering a full two feet above her husband, she hovered mostly in the background in her drab and dark house dresses. It is said that on her rare forays into downtown Poteet, she was only known to have uttered two words, but no one can remember what they were.¹ More complicated is Hazel's relationship with Bubba and Sissy. Even as a tiny girl, she donned seductive costumes to vie with Sissy for Bubba's sexual favors (fig.2).

It was in 1963, while Bubba was serving time in juvenile hall, that Hazel developed what she called her "mystical" relationship with the cat, Gertrude (fig. 3). "Her stare mesmerized me," Hazel stated, "and I kept hearing the words of On the Trail of the Lonesome Pine, ² over and over, although I don't recall ever hearing that song before." Hazel attributes her awakening to the "possibility"³ of the arts, as well as ". . . a kind of expansion of sexual consciousness. . .", to her intimate relationship with Gertrude. It was that this time that she took the precocious photograph, Dead Plush Dog (fig. 4). One can only speculate as to the meaning of this work in the context of these revelations.

Bubba's return from "juvenile" brought with it the introduction of a new player into the Stilton family, Harlan Hotsnatch. The sexual tension generated by this sinewy young stallion's presence exacerbated the already volatile domestic dynamic. Hazel almost immediately found herself mindlessly in love with him. In an atmosphere steamy with carnal anticipation, Bubba, Harlan, Sissy, and Hazel spent many intense hours together downing Lone Stars and smoking Salem menthols. Friday evenings, they gathered together at the Poteet Fish Fry to dance the "Two Step," the "Cotton-Eyed Joe," and have sexual intercourse with the odd casually available cowboy or cowgirl. This was a rare and idyllic interlude in Hazel's erotically complicated life. The day after she graduated from Poteet High School, Hazel and Harlan were married by a local Justice of the Peace. For the most part, they shared a passionate and serene honeymoon until Harlan discovered Hazel wasn't really pregnant.⁴

A downturn in the romantic relationship notwithstanding, she, Harlan, and Gertrude settled down together. Not too long after the marriage, when Edwin Stilton, Sr. evicted him from the paternal home, Bubba took up residence on the Hotsnatch sofa. Hazel's life became one of simple routine, spending her days wearing curlers, short ("butt cheek") shorts, halter tops and flip flops, doing her nails, visiting the Dairy Queen, and drinking beer and smoking up on the front step. Bubba and Harlan made regular weekend trips to a friend's deer lease near Matamoros, Mexico, or for fishing off South Padre Island. In their absence, Hazel enjoyed the hypnotic companionship of Gertrude, or cheered herself with outings to the Friday night fish fry. Bubba and Harlan always returned in high spirits and with little gifts of cash to keep Hazel from resenting their time away.

It was after one of the fishing excursions that Harlan, arriving home without Bubba, suggested that they take a driving tour through the Midwest and all the way to Canada to see if they might want to settle down there. Harlan's vague explanation of Bubba's absence perplexed Hazel, but she was longing for adventure and a change of scenery. She eagerly agreed to the enterprise. They loaded their things into a trailer hitched behind the Monte Carlo and happily embarked on their new adventure. Little did they know that the car, until then entirely dependable, would fail them in the area where Hazel was to discover her true existential purpose. There, she would produce the phenomenal works we present for you today at the Sheboygan Art Museum.

After Poteet
When a fuel station engineer in St. Paul told Hazel and Harlan there was no way to salvage the Monte Carlo, they set about finding at least temporary accommodations nearby. They moved into a quaint duplex in one of the older neighborhoods of the city.

After spending a few weeks in St. Paul, Harlan and Hazel found themselves experiencing a certain degree of culture shock. Harlan missed his recreational weekends with Bubba, and Hazel craved her simple quotidian existence in Poteet. The cold weather in St. Paul made her want her flip flops and butt cheek shorts, and she also regretted the loss of other simple pleasures from her former life. The couple tried to find a niche in the blue collar neighborhood they inhabited in St. Paul, but somehow, they never quite felt comfortable. In response to Hazel's increasing insecurity and dissatisfaction, Harlan suggested that she involve herself in a hobby. Hazel, looked deeply into the eyes of the now aging Gertrude and thought, "Painting." This was to be a pivotal moment in a momentous life. Harlan encouraged Hazel to visit a local art store and to buy canvas, palette, and other painting medium resources. Between the telepathy of Gertrude, and the strong encouragement of Harlan, Hazel felt she had no choice. She rushed immediately to the nearest St. Paul arts-and-crafts store for the necessary purchases and began "Painting." It is amazing to observe the products of her first early experiments, which we will attempt to describe and explain here.

Paintings
Hazel said of her first work, Blue Ball (fig. 5), "There was a sale on canvases at the store, and Harlan said to get canvases, so that's what I bought, except then I didn't have much money left over. The salesman said I could paint with two things on canvas: oil, or acrylics. The stuff for acrylics was WAY cheaper, so that's what I got. After that, I could only afford two colors. I got blue, 'cause that was the color of Harlan's eyes, and yellow, 'cause that was the color of his teeth. I didn't know what the hell a 'palette' was. Now that I know, fuck, I just use egg cartons."⁵ Many art critics have speculated about Hotsnatch's choice of subject matter. Some think that she was inspired by an illustration in an elementary school science book she picked up at a garage sale to prop up a short leg on the bed she and Harlan shared. It was in the chapter about the rotation of the earth around the sun that Harlan frequently hid less bulky controlled substances with which he was experimenting."⁶ Sappho Bessarabian-Muncher, however, relates that Hazel said that at the time she was working on the painting she was obsessed with all things spherical, the earth, oranges, ova, volleyballs, implanted breasts, tennis balls, metaphorical vaginas and uteruses, and testicles. Hazel, reportedly, also said to Sappho, "Man, I remember once, at the fish fry, this guy was tellin' me 'bout how he got blue balls, so I said, 'What's that?' So he told me. I couldn't BELIEVE it!!! 'You let that happen? You didn't at least make her go down on you? Shit! You did that. . . for real? Damn.'" Ms. Bessarabian-Muncher states that Hotsnatch remained amazed about it for as long as she knew her, and every few days, she would find Hazel shaking her head and mumbling to herself, "Fuckin' CRAZY! Fuckin' A! Damn! Didn't even make her get him off. . . sheee-ut!"

In a later work, Floating Baby (fig. 6), Hazel demonstrates her acquisition of more tubes of paint. There are no accounts of Hazel ever expressing a desire to have a baby. For this reason, it may be concluded that Hazel might have viewed this particular painting as a sort of portrait of herself in a state of primordial innocence, moving away from herself, the experienced woman painter, awash in a semi-translucent spiritually cleansing bath and naked for a fresh experience of sensation. Others have noted that if you cover up the left side of the "baby," the figure looks remarkably like an erect penis, and the head of the subject bears a distinct resemblance to a glans. It is possible that Hotsnatch intended a veiled reference to the erect penis swimming in vaginal fluids, and indirectly, to sperm swimming toward the ovum. At any rate, the central figure in this figure remains markedly phallic in significance.

By the time she produced Cock Fight (fig. 7), it is clear that Hotsnatch had access to many more tubes of paint. This work appears to be a frenzy of cocks and feathers. Poteet residents relate that Hazel relished occasions on which she could both witness and bet on a cock fight. ⁸ Although these sporting events were deemed illegal in Texas, on occasion, Harlan and Bubba would escort her to venues of this sort in Matamoros. "I have this thing about cocks and chickens," Hazel was known to say, ""It just drives me crazy. It's so HOT. . . So, like you have these cocks, and they're fighting, which turns me on, anyway, and there's feathers flyin' all over, and these cocks prancin' and thrustin', and THEN, they're really fighting to fuck these chickens! WOW! I just almost COME when I think about it." ⁷ Undocumented sources say Hazel also revealed that after laying down the base coat of this painting, she experimented with spewing paint in swirls over the canvas in Jackson Pollock fashion. When the canvas dried, she painted over the spews and added the cock's heads.

As Hazel became more prolific, Harlan began making extended trips to Mexico, exporting suitcases of Hazel's paintings and importing suitcases of Mexican folk art and textiles, ". . .to inspire Hazel," Harlan said.⁹ It was during Harlan's absences that Hazel first encountered Sappho Bessarabian-Muncher. She then began cultivating an intimate relationship with Sappho, a prominent St. Paul cheese heiress and noted patroness of the arts in the twin city area. Bessarabian-Muncher magnanimously helped Hazel along, when she ran out of cash, by purchasing some of Hazel's paintings and providing the occasional meal.

The End of Painting
These absences also precipitated the beginning of another significant liaison in Hazel's life, and that was the one with Bobby "Big Black" Johnson. It remains unclear as to what exactly Bobby was doing in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, but by all accounts, when he met Hazel, "sparks flew." Their mutual attraction appeared to be both vital and indefatigable. ¹⁰ Shortly after meeting him, Hazel was to desert Minneapolis/St. Paul, Harlan, Ms. Bessarabian-Muncher, and, it is believed, painting, for the fulfillment she found in Johnson's company and the warmer clime of Houston's Third Ward. It has not been proven that Hazel gave up painting, but no works can be found that postdate the beginning of her tempestuous relationship with Johnson. An interviewer for the Houston Chronicle did once attempt to determine Hazel's whereabouts. He relates that on a visit to Johnson's mother's house Mrs. Johnson told him, "I don't know ANYTHING about Bobby and that bitch white 'ho. (Sweet Jesus, I never thought I'd see the day!) And I ain't takin' care of no damn white 'ho babies! Now, get your nosy black ass off my porch!" ¹¹ By this, the reporter concluded that Mr. Johnson was unavailable for comment.

Conclusion
We are left with a very small sampling of the dynamic, yet intimate, works produced by the genius Hazel Stilton Hotsnatch. Minneapolis and St. Paul arts illuminati profess that by its very scarcity the value of her opus is ensured in the artistic world. Nevertheless, connoisseurs of Hotsnatch's painterly style dream that some day the "lost" paintings Harlan exported to Mexico will surface. We can only hope. Still, whether or not the artist that is Hazel Stilton Hotsnatch returns to painting, she has bequeathed to art lovers in the Minneapolis/St. Paul and Sheboygan areas a powerful legacy rich in voluptuous imagery.

Footnotes

1. Joleene Colby, personal interview, 6 July 1998.
2. "(Gertrude Stein's) favorite song," James R. Mellow, Charmed Circle: Gertrude Stein & Company (New York: Avon, 1974) Illustrations.
3. "Kant,"A Dictionary of Philosophy: Revised Second Edition, 1984.
4. Sappho Bessarabian-Muncher, personal interview, 31 October 1998.
5. Bessarabian-Muncher, personal interview.
6. Bessarabian-Muncher, personal interview.
7. Darrell "Smeg Head" Muenster, personal interview, 30 October 1998.
8. Colby, personal interview.
9. Muenster, personal interview.
10. Bessarabian-Muncher, personal interview.
11. Baron Banon, personal interview, 5 November 1997.