I am a “what if” person. What if I went that way? What if I made the other decision? What if? You get the idea.
My story starts in the early 1970’s, yes, before I was born. An artist by the name of David Armstrong painted a picture of my great-grandfather Louis Gansell. The painting was part of the Vanishing American Craftsman series. Louis was a well-known woodcarver. Several other paintings in the series went to print. Not my great-grandfather’s. We are not really sure why. We do know my great-grandmother Florance claimed the painting didn’t look like him.
She was wrong. It looks exactly like him.
David Armstrong died in 1996 and with it hopes of ever getting a print made of Louis’ painting. Various family members reached out to different people over the years with no luck, myself included. As my grandfather used to say “If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.”
August 11, 2018
It was a rainy Saturday when my mom and I went to visit my cousin Stuart and do some family research. We spent the day at Stuart’s cabin comparing notes, sharing photos and making copies of documents. At one point Stuart brought out an old brochure featuring the painting. He talked about how he would love to have a copy of the painting as it is his grandfather. Stuart mentioned how he contacted Bucknell University where the original painting hangs. He had no luck. Mom and I eventually said our goodbyes and headed home.
August 12, 2018
I am allergic to cats. My mom has a “few” so I ended up staying at an Air B&B in Muncy, which is near my hometown. When I went to leave on the morning of the 12th, the homeowner was there. I commented on his lovely home and beautiful artwork. The conversation surrounded art and on a whim, I brought up David Armstrong. The homeowner wasn’t a fan but was familiar with the artist. I then proceeded to tell him how Armstrong had painted Louis and we were never able to get copies. Very casually the homeowner tells me he knows a guy and gives me some contact information. He said to tell the contact what I was looking for.
He really did “know a guy.” You would think I would have rushed right home to reach out to the contact. I didn’t. I suppose it’s due to years of disappointment and assumed this would be no different. About a two weeks later I found the contact info at the bottom of my bag and sent an email. A few days later I received a reply:
“A few years ago the Armstrong Family had a similar request and I did prints of the requested painting for all the family members, and then the the Armstrongs decided to release it to the art public also. So there is a good possibility this can be done.”
Wow. I was beyond excited. I reached out to my family with the good news and started gathering names and numbers of prints each wanted. There was a hurdle though. Did David Armstrong make a digital file for printing? Then I got the email I had hoped for:
“I just received the digital file of The Woodcarver (your great-grandfather) from Katy Armstrong (David Armstrong’s daughter). It is beautiful…”
Digital Kuiper 