I Just Wanted To Do Something Important.

Some Folks Think I Painted Lincoln From Life, But I Haven't Been Around That Long. Not Quite.

I Used To Sit In The Studio With A Copy Of The (saturday Evening) Post Laid Across My Knees ... And Then I'd Conjure Up A Picture Of Myself As A Famous Illustrator And Gloat Over It, Putting Myself In Various Happy Situations, Surrounded By Admiring Females, Deferred To By Office Flunkies At The Magazines, Wined And Dined By The Editor.

I Unconsciously Decided That, Even If It Wasn't An Ideal World, It Should Be. So I Painted Only The Ideal Aspects Of It - Pictures In Which There Are No Drunken Slatterns Or Self-centered Mothers... Only Foxy Grandpas Who Played Baseball With The Kids And Boys Who Fished From Logs And Got Up Circuses In The Backyard.

Very Interesting For An Old Duffer Like Me To Try His Hand At Something New. If I Don't Do That Once In A While, I Might Just Turn Into A Fossil, You Know!

If A Picture Wasn't Going Very Well, I'd Put A Puppy In It.