Don Van Vliet Artwork

"Old and Young Man in Bar" Inscribed "To Gary and Ling Ling" Signed "Van Vliet 79" Black marker on paper in frame Drawing measures 10 3/4" x 13 3/4" In spring of 1979, I visited LA ostensibly to supervise a shoot for a tv commercial I had scripted for CBS Records, where I was working as a copywriter at the time. Don drove in from Lancaster where he was living with his wife Jan in a trailer to meet, hang out and have dinner with me. He picked me up at my hotel, the Beverly Hilton, and we went to his favorite restaurant in LA, the venerable Pacific Dining Car—an actual railroad dining car situated in downtown LA. Afterwards Don drove me in his Volvo to a nearby bar for a nightcap. Huddled at a table, and observing people at the bar, Don rapidly drew this sketch for me while we were there. Upon presenting it, I joked that the figures in his drawing resembled the two of us. Don grinned, and inscribed this drawing to me and my wife Ling.