Translate

CONTACT US...


Phone
1-918-760-1575

email mspeermorgan@netscape.net



Thursday, October 31, 2013

New picture of the Courthouse.......

I was home in Carthage recently and as usual I ran around the square and noticed that it was an opportune time to catch the Courthouse of Jasper County in morning light. As a kid I can remember being taken up to the top of it and viewing all around the city from the high vantage point it offered. I could see Morrow Mill, the Quarry, and the water tower south of the city. For a kid that was as good as it got.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

I Don't Know Where To Start...

About 1966 I met a guy that as life ran it's course, would become a source of amazement, and appreciation. I can't put my finger on the exact time of our first meeting but the earliest memory I have is of him showing up at a friends house with a strobe light. The music was changing from the California Car and Surf tunes to the British Invasion and there was a change in the air. "Hippies" were
not yet on the scene in the mid-west but were slowly spreading from the West. Free thinking was starting to be OK and there seemed to be something new around every corner. Steve was in the middle of the change. He was an Art Major at Pittsburg State University and a painter, silk screener and had a good hand for drawing. He had started collecting Civil War uniforms as well as Indian Artifacts. As the story rolls on, you can sort of stand back and ask, "What to hell was that" and see Steve leading the pack into a new adventure. The first real adventure I heard of was Steve, Larry Wooster, and Bill Russell deciding to drive Woosters' hearse out to California to check out the "Scene". Obviously there are a lot of small towns between Pittsburg and California, and seeing the interior of a Kansas licensed hearse rolling down the road with three guys with long hair, dressed in Confederate and Union uniforms screamed for every cop in every town to stop them and ask the obvious......."What's up"... The trip took a LOOOONNNGGG time.

Steve and I would cross paths as the years started to run together and we could always start the conversation where we had let off. It was just a great friendship. He was an expert on Indian art and early western pieces. He would buy and sell items as he found the market and seemed to fall into treasure troves of important items he could fine new owners for. At one time he had many original Frank Lloyd Wright drawings for sale. He traveled throughout the West and Midwest picking and selling as he traveled. Spending some time in Europe he made a small fortune selling worn Levi jeans...only Fenimore could have done that at the time.

About six months ago I hadn't heard from him in a while and called to see what he had going on. He had been sick, and diagnosed with type 2 diabetes....not good. Another call later and everything seemed under control. Reading the Carthage paper as I always do, I was shocked to see his Obituary.
His health had not been good.

Steve Fenimore was a good friend, a source of interesting adventures, and a mentor of sorts. He made his living through his vast knowledge of collectible art and artifacts, connections with collectors and the business sense necessary to make a buck. Because of Steve many pieces that could have been lost through time are in the hands of collectors that will protect them and pass them on to later generations.

As with most of my friends in the arts I traded a photograph for a drawing of Steves' produced in 1975......I'm going to miss the conversations and stories but at least I have a piece of his original art.
Happy Trails Steve...............


Sunday, October 20, 2013

The Maple Leaf !!!

Wow !! What a fun but rushed time....

We left Tulsa about 7 in the morning to get to Carthage and prepare for the Maple Leaf One Shot. Typical ride up I-44 no really interesting items to see on the way other than the progress of St. Johns Hospital in Joplin that was destroyed by the Joplin Tornado a few years ago. It is going to be an amazing and much needed facility of the area.  They were one of my best Commercial accounts in the area when I was located in Carthage. I'm looking forward to working with them again once the construction is completed.

I had advertised on Facebook and my Blog concerning the One Shot for the first time actually. I was amazed by the turnout. We had a great time seeing past clients and a few new ones appeared. Very good to see everyone again. I am precess the images getting ready to send them to my lab for production. I'll post a few after I'm finished.

I didn't have much time to get to the Car Show regrettably, but I did briefly walk through. Amazing number of Hot Rods and custom cars from the twenties through the present cars we have now. I'll spend more time next year. I'll write more later concerning the day.

Monday, October 14, 2013

The Annual "One Shot"....

Maple Leaf is here again and YES ! I will be hosting the "One Shot Special" again this year. This is the one time in the year when you can have a Morgan Portrait at extremely reasonable prices. However, this year is going to be different. I have decided that the old background needs an update and a couple of more options available. I will be posting on facebook leaking out a bit of information on each post so stay tuned to your facebook account for more information.

The day of the shoot is Saturday the 19th, Parade Day, and the time is set for 1:00 to 3:00 in the afternoon at 401 Belle Aire Place, off of Grand avenue. Bring yourself, your family, pets, you name it,
they will all look great in a Morgan Portrait.