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Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Whitefish Studio & TMAR .. Outdoor Heritage Boosters

Another Box of Rocks ... maybe, maybe not


'Got a black magic woman
Got a black magic woman
I've got a black magic woman, got me so blind I can't see.
That she's a black magic woman, she's trying to make a devil out of me.'
-Carlos Santana

I recently received a visit from a reader of the Thursday Morning Art Review who happened to be in the area on business and took the time to stop by.

We'd just exchanged pleasantries when I was called down to the house for a few minutes.

'Sorry to bail out on you like that.' I said upon my return. 'Not a problem.' He replied. 'It was fun to look around the place. Even though we've just met, I feel like I know quite a bit about you. There's the box of rocks that you wrote about last week.' He nodded toward the corner. 'But, there's more than just rocks...'"


-- from the Whitefish Studio web site's -"Thursday Morning Art Review ...

Yes ... that's the way it is with a lot of things we see on a regular basis .. we begin to forget that they are MUCH MORE than just rocks.

This exerpt, is from the site of a gentle man - and I do mean that in that way - who is both a collegue and a friend. He is also an incredibley talented person who is able to share with others through his art and his writing the experiences of a lifetime streamside and afield. His name is Bob White.

Bob and his wife Lisa own and operate Whitefish Studios out of their home in Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota. Bob is a 20+ year veteran of guiding both fishing and hunting in some of the most beautiful areas on earth: Alaska and Argentina. He brings to the canvas and watercolor paper the revelations of his years of passionate attention to detail and the experiences with some of the most colorful characters imaginable. He and Lisa then make them available to us - the waiting and yearning public, who only dream of such experience - in the forms of original art, reproduction prints and note cards.

Recently - over the past 2 years - Bob has been experimenting with a new medium: writing. Bob has shown, in that time, that he is as at-home with a computer keyboard as he is with his brushes and palettes. Each week, nearly 2000 eager souls wait for their email to inform them they have 'mail'. Because they know they will be getting the new - hot-off-the-press visions of Bob in his regular weekly publication, "Thursday Morning Art Review" .. or TMAR as we've come to fondly refer to it.

TMAR is a word story that flows from the images of Bob's artwork - through his years of experience - and colored by his very fertile imagination and storehouse of knowledge. Each story carries with it the images of thousands of experiences - yet focused though one image - a print - which Bob promotes, each week.

As an artist myself, I can appreciate the talent it takes to make these images and prose come to life for me and hundreds of others. As an outdoorsman, I relish in the experiences Bob allows me to experience vicariously. As a promoter and evangelist of the Outdoor Heritage I am not only thankful .. I am awed .. by the power Bob brings to the statements one can make for the grandeur, the majesty, the magic .. the sheer wonder of it all: the beauty of the natural world.

The ancient chinese philosopher Confucious is credited with the saying,
"A picture is worth a thousand words" .. and it is so true. Imagine, then, how gifted one must be to be able to say a thousand words and create a picture in your mind of the very picture your are looking upon, but ... from another perspective. That is the art and talent of Bob White.

Experience the
Whitefish Studios. Experience the 'Thursday Morning Art Review'. Experience the great Outdoors. And then step-to-the-plate to ensure they will always be there ... for us - and for future generations. Support efforts to protect and preserve our resources. Take steps to insure each of your actions- in or out of the outdoors- does the same. Teach a child, pass-on-to a friend and strengthen within yourself - the Outdoors Code ... to be respectful of and towards the natural resources. Embue this effort through being engaged in the Outdoor Heritage Activities.

Experience the magic through the visuals and words of those like Bob White. Support those who work diligently to feed their passions - those that bring to all of us the wonders of nature - in their various forms: of artwork , as stories in print, as photographs, in movies, as online productions, and by whatever media they use.


Support the Outdoor Communicators. Those who ply their craft as artists of pen and brush - and those who today use the modern technological versions. For it is through their efforts we have a legacy - a visual, oral and written - record of our wonderous Outdoor Heritage. It will be through those 'pictures' with which we will launch a thousand words - that will reconstitute our memories of the wildlife and times that inhabit the streams, fields and mountains. All of which we so deeply hold dear .. and for many, as the burning words of a wise man once said still prod us today;

"... Be that as it may, I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in. Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?"
- Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac


And that .. well, that's - as my dad used to say, "our sack-of-rocks".

A. O'fieldstream

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