Gettysburg-
When I was a little boy my Grandma Richmond read to me from Mackinlay Kantor's Gettysburg. I loved the sound of the words and I spent many hours drawing pictures inspired by the pen and ink illustrations scattered throughout the little green cloth-covered book. Kantor's history, I now realize, was often flawed, but he certainly got the spirit right. As I sat in my grandparent's living room, listening to my grandmother's voice, that spirit settled deep inside me.
This past June I visited the Gettysburg battlefield with my dear wife, Pat, and Allie, one of my two lovely stepdaughters. On the evening of our second day, as the sun slid toward the horizon, Pat and I walked at a brisk pace down the gradual slope upon which the First Minnesota Regiment had charged. We were deeply affected by the experience, and had to keep from sobbing as we entered the killing ground along Plum Run.
I have told the story of the First Minnesota's sacrifice hundreds of times since I was a boy, and painted it once as a teen (see What's New? #4), but I walked back up from that creek bed feeling numb and unable to comprehend the slaughter that had happened there. I occasionally glanced back over my shoulder, convinced I was leaving those men behind, and I felt guilty for trying to imagine something so intensely personal.
Work-
The new children's books are hot off the press and in the stores and are very well received. I have begun making appearances at bookstores and historic sites. Our release party in Prescott for The Legend of Wisconsin and at St. Paul's The Red Balloon Bookshop for The Voyageur's Paddle were very well attended, and we have spent time in period costume at both the Villa Louis in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin and the Madeline Island Museum, La Pointe, Wisconsin. I painted en plein air at both sites, and had assistance from the occasional passing child. They loved mixing paints for me and examining the contents of my recreated 19th Century artist's box – particularly the pig's bladders filed with oil paint!
There is no time to rest however, as I begin work on a new title for Sleeping Bear Press, and the October due date is fast approaching. As usual, I can't give too much away, but I can say that I have been photographing old 1950's buses and trying to remember just what those old bathroom roller towel dispensers used to look like. The artist's life is filled with glamour . . .
The fifth What's New page
The fourth What's New page
The third What's New page
The second What's New page
The first What's New page