Lincoln Paintings

The Decatur Celebration was my first art fair event and it went well. My mother helped me run the booth and let me stay at her place in Decatur for the weekend so first of all I want to say thanks to her for helping to make it possible for me.

Also thanks to Ayn Owens who initially recruited me, Fred Puglia, and everyone else at the event who either bought my prints and posters or spoke with me, or put money in my hat when I was playing ukulele.

> this section written on 8/15/09

DAY ONE – FRIDAY

As I was approaching Decatur I realized that I had forgotten some food supplies that I had purchased for the trip back home in our refrigerator. I called my girlfriend Lisa who grew up in Decatur to ask where I could go to replace it and as I entered the city I stopped b y the grocery and then met my mother at her house and she followed me to the site where I was instructed to set up.

I was told in the paperwork sent to me from the Decatur Celebration main office that I should look for a man named Don Davis who would tell us where to park and to set up, however, when Mother and I  arrived, there was no one by that name any where and the men in golf carts who were buzzing around did not seem to know who he was or if they did know, they did not know where he was. They also did not know where we should park or set up.

We were on the block of Water Street to the South of North Street, in front of a bank (I forget the name) and I saw four canopies set up along the South side of the street. I asked one of the golf-cart drivers if it mattered which canopy we chose and we were told it didn’t matter so I picked the one in front of two planters full of flowers that was closest to the entrance of the bank.

We started to unload our cars and place our items under the canopy and were almost halfway finished when the rain started. The canopy was enough cover to protect most of our stuff, but then water began to collect and rush for the storm drain which was right under our canopy so we had to hurry and get everything off the ground and onto the chairs and tables.

I had to put some stuff back into the car because we couldn’t get it all off the ground so we decided to stop setting up until the rain subsided.  At around 3:55 P.M. Another golf cart came by and one of the men in it told us that if we didn’t move our car within five minutes, they would tow it away. Luckily it stopped raining and I unloaded the rest of the contents and drove to the parking garage across the street.

There I was told by an attendant that I was just in time because after four o’clock I would have to pay to park, but since I still had three minutes to go I could get in free and stay the rest of the evening until the event was over for the night.

When I came back to the canopy I set everything up and somebody said that they just saw Don Davis drive by in a golf cart.

> this section written on  8/19/09

Friday evening went well. I was visited by Ayn Owens (the woman who recruited me for the Celebration) and was even interviewed for the local paper, the Herald and Review. I became acquainted with Hank and Wanda under the canopy next to us who were selling Lincoln art as well and went to see the Circuit Rider, the Lincoln Harley-Davidson I remembered from its stay at the Presidential Museum a few months back.

Two canopies were empty throughout Friday. There were four set up by the Celebration staff and the Circuit rider crew had their own so there were three exhibits out of five that were expected. Because of the rain the temperature was lower than expected and it was a fine evening. Once I had some espresso and played a few songs on my uke, I felt right at home. I decided to wait until the next day to wear period clothes.

Before the night was over, my booth was visited by Lori Escalera who was working on a sidewalk painting of Lincoln near the gate (we were just down from gate 2 on North and Water Streets). We had a talk about giclee printing, the method I use to replicate my paintings, and she offered some advise from her experience about how digital interpolation handles the color red. Her website is http://www.thestreetpainter.com

I was also visited by a reporter from the Herald and Review, Ashley Rueff, who interviewed me. It was one of her first stories for the paper as she had gotten job out of college and had been there only a month. You can read what she wrote below which appeared in the next morning’s paper. I was happy to have given her a slightly more interesting story than she bargained for being an actor at the Presidential Museum in Springfield as well as  painter of Lincoln there for the Bicentennial.

THE LINCOLN CONNECTION — One of the artists set up in the Abraham Lincoln Experience section of the Celebration is Ted Keylon. He is selling prints of his Lincoln paintings and at first look they seem to be just impressive, more modern portraits of the 16th president. Stop and talk to Keylon though, and you’ll uncover a funny connection. Keylon is an artist, but he also works full-time at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield. He is an actor at the museum where he plays Francis Carpenter, an artist who knew Lincoln and painted the famous portrait of him reading the “Emancipation Proclamation.” So Keylon is a painter who paints Lincoln and an actor who plays a painter who painted Lincoln. Got it? Keylon grew up in Springfield where he was flooded with Lincoln history everywhere he looked, so at first he wasn’t interested in painting him, Keylon said. But after working at the museum he learned a lot about Lincoln that interested him, and Keylon changed his perspective. He likes painting him because “there’s a lot of character in his face,” he said. Keylon’s Lincoln works can be found at www.lincolnpaintings.com.

DAY TWO – SATURDAY

The paperwork that was sent to me had all the load-in and load-out times written down. Load-out for Friday night was supposed to be at 11:30 P.M. I wanted to get a jump on the crowd leaving so I went to the gate and asked an attendant if I would be able to bring my car through a little early and he said that would be fine. As it turned out I had so much interest in my booth that I was not going to be able to tear down early anyway, however, the gatekeeper came over and said to me that if I wanted to load out I would have to do it right away before he left or the next guy might not let me out! Of course I said that 11:30 was the actual load-out time anyway but he seemed to think it wouldn’t matter. As it was the gate was deserted when I got my car and picked up my stuff.

Load-in time for Saturday morning was 9:00 A.M. Mom and I were running a little late and I got to Gate 2 at 9:20. There was a Civil Service guard at the gate who told me no one could go through because of the parade. I told him I was a vendor and I noticed no one else had set up yet in the Lincoln area. He let me through after a little coaxing, I set up my stuff, and found  a parking spot nearby where Hank had parked his car since the parking garage was not free anymore and it was full of people who were going to watch the parade from the upper floors.

Before I could even get my stuff set up we had a new problem: 35-mile-an-hour gusts of wind! I had to remove my canopy to keep the whole structure from blowing away. Also, we noticed that many of the bolts were loose so we tightened them. Hank and Wanda had gone to watch the parade and while they were gone the wind was so strong at one point that it lifted their canopy up off the ground, it slammed into the lamp post on the street and came back down on top of their artwork!

Since they were gone, Mom and I ran over and began dissembling what was left of the canopy. Many of the legs had come apart because their bolts were not tight either and one of the metal poles had bent so bad it couldn’t be set back up. Amazingly their artwork was not damaged. When Hank and Wanda came back we explained what happened and they moved to the empty canopy next to them.

> this section written on 8/30/09

Once the parade was over and all the vendors came back to their booths, tents, and canopies, the Celebration continued wonderfully.

I was visited just before dusk by a news crew from WAND TV Channel 17 (thanks to Ayn Owens who said she pointed them in my direction) and you can see the segment here. I also got a lot of laughs giving in to the idea that I was supposed to be Lincoln. I was wearing period clothing and did actually have a top hat, although it is a fancy top hat and not exactly the sort known to have been worn b y Lincoln. I danced to the music of the band on the stage nearest us as Lincoln, even doing the moonwalk down the street and playing my ukulele. Where is the news crew when you need them, eh?

I also went up to the tomahawk throwing tent and stood watching as a guy was trying to hit the wooden target. People were watching as I, who they took to be Lincoln, laughed out loud at the guy when he missed. This caused the entire crowd to laugh along as well. Of course I was only kidding around but the guy who was throwing was not very happy about it so challenged me to do better. I did not do better—-I only hit the target twice out of fifteen tries.

The day went well and we were looking forward to an even better day on Sunday. I sold a few posters and got many contacts and wonderful compliments and most inportantly, I had a lot of fun. The parking debacle was somewhat sorted out, we eventually were given a parking pass so that we could park our cars in the parking garage and not get towed for parking them in the parking contingent to our areas.

At the end of the evening I went to the gate to see what ordeals awaited me there for that evening when we were to load out again and was told that people cannot load-out until the gate has been “cleared.” This was the first I had heard of such a thing and later we had a line of vehicles waiting to come in to load their gear until the gate was finally opened by the man who told me a little earlier that night that he was in charge, Mike Queary. He gave me his phone number and said if I had any further trouble getting in and out of the gate to call him directly and then he apologized profusely for what we had been going through prior to that moment. The gate was eventually “cleared” and we loaded our equipment out.

DAY THREE – SUNDAY

Sunday we arrived quite on time according to our paperwork. We took both our cars, Mom and I, and when I arrived at gate 2, another civil service person came to me asking to see my pass. My paperwork, which you remember was supposed to function as my pass according to Puglia’s office, was not good enough the day before, my parking pass was only for parking, so I simply told the man in true Jedi style, “There is no pass.” And wouldn’t you know after a sour expression, he just moved the barrier and waved me through.

The wind wasn’t nearly as bad Sunday. Several people came by telling me they had seen me on the news the night before. At one point I was playing my ukulele and a woman came up to me asking where to put the money! I had never thought of that and immediately after she gave me a dollar tip and buying a poster, I went to find a rock to weigh down my top hat and ‘seeded’ it with some ones from poster sales the day before and set it out before me when playing. I ended up making a total of four dollars whenever I had time to play.  I really should have thought of that earlier.

I had time Sunday to walk around a bit and stopped to see Senses, with Dave Cain, Howie Freetag, and Jeff Cunningham, all musicians that I know, plus I spoke at length with Dan Guillory, author of Living With Lincoln (1989); When the Waters Recede (1996); The Alligator Inventions (1991); Images of America: Decatur (2004); and most recently, Wartime Decatur (2006). There is an article about him here.

At one point Hank came by my canopy and offered me several of his postcards of his art that he had made to see if Tinsley Dry Goods in downtown Springfield would be interested in selling them. I still need to get that sorted out, I have enough on my hands just getting my stuff marketed but I promised I would show them to Dana there at Tinsley’s.

I also spoke with Fritz Klein who stopped by my canopy and reminded me that I had the only copy of a DVD he had loaned to me previously containing footage from a film he was in called, The Lost River, about the life of Anna Ella Carroll. Fritz and I both share a fascination with Miss Carroll and I try to maintain a site about her at http://www.annaellacarroll.com

I say “try” to maintain because with all my other projects this past year, I have not been able to keep up with that site. I do, however, have one of her most important pamphlets transcribed and will be posting it to the site very soon for researchers. The Pamphlet is called, “The Relation of National Government to the Revolted Citizens,” and lays out the legal underpinning of the Emancipation years before the latter was issued to the public. It was printed by the White House Printing Office itself and laid on the desks of Congressmen at the time.

I ended up selling a print and several posters at the event. Considering the  newspaper story, the television spot, and all the contacts I made, which included catching up with Logan County Tourism Director, Geoff Ladd, about a new gallery opening up in Lincoln, IL, Sunni Art Gallery, I think it was a successful trip and hope to do more art fairs in the future.