1978

We went to Martha’s Vineyard in 1978 and again in 1980. I directed a telethon sometime in the early 80’s with Bill Baird, who was a famous puppeteer at the time. He had a place on The Vineyard so I showed him some of the drawings I had done there. He told me the house I had drawn on a rise above Menemsha Beach belonged to the guy who invented Ektachrome for Kodak.

 

I brought some drawings to the Vineyard Gazette and they had published at least one a week for awhile. I didn’t get paid anything, but I did get a letter from a guy who was the publisher of a magazine called The Catboat Journal. He asked if he could reprint my drawing of a derelict catboat on the cover of his magazine - he didn’t want to pay anything either. I told him he could use the drawing if he sent me a couple of copies of the magazine. I never heard from him again. The drawing is just to the left here.

 

I usually gravitate to scenes that include water but the house with the tree really appealed to me, maybe it was the clothesline out back. I loved the smell of the sheets that my mother had dried on a line in the back yard when I was a kid.

 

Whenever I start a drawing with working boats I try to have the boats finished first.  When I was doing the bottom drawing the dory I had been drawing in the morning was gone when I went back in the afternoon. Luckily there were similar boats around. I really don’t like making up parts of boats but I’ve done it.

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