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| Visiting the Veeder Gallery Kim, Kathleen, Carolyn -- with Larry Veeder and his Rolfsrud cousins, Stan, Solveig Agnes, and Virg. |
Agnes Rolfsrud Veeder encouraged her 11-year-old to draw as he recuperated from rheumatic fever in their western North Dakota farmhouse in the early 1950s. An unusual pursuit for a prairie boy, Larry liked sketching a lot more than farming… or football.
Stan's cousin made a life of it, culminating this fall in a three-generation show at a gallery in Red Wing, Minnesota, which the town named after him a few years ago.
Among the colorful family productions on display is a humble scrapbook, assembled from yellowed papers lovingly saved by a proud mother. It contains a trove of Larry's youthful muses, mostly cowboys, Indians, horses, guns and depictions of real and imaginary battles penciled in great detail by a boy with an imagination and a gift. Also among the subjects were a still-life of pens and an ink bottle, as well as portraits of himself, his brother, and this one of his mother at age 40.
Whatever influence Stan's Aunt Agnes had on her son, it lives on today. Larry and his wife, Carolyn, have encouraged their progeny in the creative arts as well. Their daughter and their grandchildren have joined the family patriarch in an impressive collection of work in the Red Wing display, its origin germinated long ago in a farmhouse on the wheat fields of North Dakota.
(Graphic at right depicts the relationships of the six artists contributing to the Veeder show. Click to enlarge. Go the gallery to see their work.)
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| Larry and Carolyn will drive the Audi convertible to their Arizona home for the winter, the perfect way to take in all the scenery at Wolf Creek Pass. |
