Finishing touches.

The one minor thing we had left to do before Owen came home from the hospital was get artwork up on the walls in his room. For weeks, we've planned to get canvases made from some of my (Travis') late Grandpa's paintings. My G-pa, Clyde Robertson, was a really imaginative soul, having created everything from WWII technical illustrations of cannons and helicopters to political cartoons, even fine art. He recognized my creative streak when I was in my teens, and we'd talk about the world of advertising when I visited. (He used to be an Art Director at a St. Louis firm and I, at the time, was a college student who was passionate about going into the biz.) 

Long story long, G-pa left me a children's book that he never could get published in the 1950s or 60s called Camping (interestingly, the box still has a return label from "McGraw Hill Publishing"). The main character in the story is even named after me, and the illustration style is based on the Dick & Jane books (in my opinion) although the animals were inspired by a store-bought book he had on hand called Hoof. So instead of his children's book collecting dust in our basement, we scanned and retouched images of the paintings, then ordered canvases to be made from some of the images. The faux woodgrain curtains that Katie made tie in nicely with the outdoorsy-ness of the work. And someday, I hope to rewrite the book-- his pictures, my words-- for a late, hopefully great collaboration. Hope you enjoy...

Figuring out size and placement.

Cover.

Various pages.

Dick & Jane inspo.

Clyde Robertson (1922-2002).