After the War

This is the art from a Baby Boomer's life. My father worked for Dow Chemical in Midland, Michigan, just after WWII. I was born in June of 1947 into the midst of the baby boom. I have done some sort of art in virtually every period of my life. With pictures being worth thousands of words, the web surfer will be spared my deathless prose and an image will accent points on my chronology.

 

High School Years

I was schooled in the industrial arts like drafting, woodworking and photography. My high school was like Firesign Theatre's 'More Science High'.

 

Inspiration - Alden B Dow Studio

Construction boomed in the post war years and I grew up watching the neighborhood in which I lived get built. Alden B. Dow's architecture also inspired me and it seemed fated that I would become interested in architecture.

 

Michigan State

Being arithmetically challenged I studied Landscape Architecture at Michigan State University. Three generations of my family had all gone there as well.

MSU Monocoupe

 

McMurdo Mid-Winter

I was caught in the Draft Lottery in the Spring of 1970, so it was “Ship Ahoy” for me. Among several duty assignments, I spent a year in the Antarctic with Operation DeepFreeze from October of 1972-73. I was honorably discharged from the Navy in 1976.

 

Family

Kathy Schultz and I got married in this church in Midland and promptly moved to Oregon where I was enrolled in graduate School at the University of Oregon in Eugene.

Midland Church

 

Mitchell, OR

For us flatlanders Oregon was something different. At least it was in the Mitchell Oregon Business Loop!

Mitchell, OR Business Loop

 

College Years

My Bachelor of Science degree from Michigan State was in Landscape Architecture, as was my Master's from the University of Oregon.

Eugenopoly

 

Cartoonista

While in Eugene, I had a brief career as an editorial cartoonist covering the Ford/Carter Presidential Campaign.

Willamette Valley Observer

 

Forestry Illustration

Armed with a freshly minted MLA from the University of Oregon, I went to work in Portland for the US Forest Service illustrating a publication on national forest landscape management t. This was at the peak of King Timber in the Pacific Northwest.

 

Film vs Video vs Illustration

The Forest Service moves at the speed the trees grow and I chaffed at the job, so in a deft career move I bailed on that job just in time for the recession of 1979-80! I diversified my portfolio and managed to find work!

 

Commissioned Art

The Port of Portland bought this watercolor of the paddlewheel steam tug Portland. Prints are still available at the Portland Maritime Museum on the waterfront!

Port of Portland Paddlewheel Steam Tug

 

Model Aviation

I turned to the Depression era hobby of model aviation which I'd learned from my father, creating plans and box art for a line of balsawood model hobby kits.

5 Grand B-17G

 

Commissioned Models

I began to receive commissions for models such as this of the solar powered ERAST Pathfinder remote sensing platform.

ERAST Pathfinder

 

Pentagon Air Force Art Program

This piece was given to the Air Force Art Program and hung in the office lobby in the Pentagon of Secretary of Defense Brown during the Carter Administration. During a visit to the Pentagon I also saw captured German military art from WWII.

Military Airlift Command Channel Flight, C141

 

Teaching at Saturday Academy

I also taught model aviation aerodynamics for Saturday Academy here in Portland for about fifteen years. In the class kids built this balsa and tissue paper rubber band powered free flight model.

Two models in hangar

 

Cover Illustration

From 1993 through June of 2001 I did six covers and construction articles for Flying Models magazine.

Flying Models magazine cover

 

Vancouver, WA

August of 2001 found me living in Vancouver, Washington, just in time for 9-11!

 

BioScrollText-c20

That was in the Old Republic, Obi-Wan.

 

Mt. Tabor Community Uprising

Post 9-11, 2008 found me moving into the Mt. Tabor neighborhood in southeast Portland. I soon got involved in the old Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church at the corner of SE 55th and Belmont. The church opened TaborSpace to the community putting a wonderful coffee shop in the bell tower and opening the Copeland Chapel as a Common Room alongside the coffee shop for the neighbors. TaborSpace has been very successful and brought new life to the neighborhood, city and the old church. As an elder in the church and a founding member of the TaborSpace steering committee, the reader surfing this website may claim a free cup of coffee at TaborSpace for taking the time to read this!

TaborSpace

 

Thank you for your time and Consideration!