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They
towed the ferry to a small parcel of Marinship,
with little near it but marsh grass and
birds. They divided the space and built
a gangway to the outer end. scavenged available
materials, built and changed. "It was
a major job to remodel that boat."
recalls Onslow‑Ford, "and we
did it all ourselves. Marinship was full
of treasures then, ‑ like cables,
2 x 4's, ice boxes ‑things you'd need.
And there was a waterfront tradition ‑
no one paid their bills. Varda was the instigator
of that custom." They recycled engine
parts and used steam pipes for chimney flues
and kitchen equipment, tore wood from the
paddlewheels for additions and partitions,
and painted the smokestack a bright yellow.
Soon the ferry began to take on a shape
unferrylike, particularly at Varda's end.
He enclosed the open stern and built out
on it ‑ a bulging addition that caused
a tilting to begin. Windows were cut out
where the paddlewheels had been, and pigeons
took up residence on the hubs. Walls were
built across the passenger deck, fireplaces
and flues sprang up and the ferry became
a sprawling, anarchistic, comfortable space
for living and creating.
"There
are happy ships and unhappy ships."
said Onslow‑Ford, "and Vallejo
was a happy ship even though there were
vastly different people on board. Varda's
main interest was people and entertaining,
mine was painting. Yet I was best of friends
with Yanko. I did some major work on that
ferry ‑ it was a place where artists
blossomed, flowered. Varda set the tone."
Varda
‑‑ the joyful, vibrant, creative
colorful nicknamed Yanko. Those who knew
and loved him are many. They remember him
as being magic. They remember color - ''he
wore one green shoe and one yellow shoe
"He rode around in a purple car wearing
a flaming pink sweat shirt." He created
bright collages with bits and pieces of
wood, paper, fabric and foil recycled into
celestial cities or clowns or women or horses
on parade. He suspended colored bottles
in the windows to catch the light and built
bits of colored glass into the fireplace.
Suns decorated the sides of the ferry, and
pennants flew from the gangway.
He
built a sailboat from an old lifeboat hull
and named her Cythera
and painted eyes on the hull and sewed
an orange and yellow ‑tin on the lateen
sail.
Maybe
it was the eyes, Greek style, which kept
him safe on his legendary voyages on board
Cythera, but people remember that it A‑as
Varda who was magic. "He was a Greek
sailor from ancient times ... a lucky person...wherever
he went, there were adventures. He was quite
fearless and would put to sea in storms
with his cargo of beauties and they never
came to harm ... ... to the astonishment
of proper yachtsmen, he could whistle the
wind."
People
remember his love of life and of women.
"He had a great sense of how to live
... most writers missed the point of why
people wanted to be around him. I don't
like to see him described as a quaint, lecherous,
charming old Bohemian. I have seen unattractive
women blossom under Varda somehow he could
see the ideal person and make the person
believe it."
People
remember the elaborate lunches served on
board Vallejo. "His taste was impeccable
and he was a great cook. He sat at the head
of the table telling parables using the
guests as subjects, and what he said made
them rethink their own lives." "He
had an incredible vocabulary ‑ used
words you ought to hear, and never hear:'
His art did not inspire admiration in all
eyes however ‑ one critic felt that
"his greatest success as an artist
was when he painted his car purple."
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