The J & L Roadshow

While visiting Lauren in the Dallas area one weekend in late December, we ran over to the Irving Arts Center to view the exhibit entitled "Garth Williams: Illustrator of the Century."

Are you familiar with these children's books?

Garth Williams was born in 1912 in New York City. Both of his British born parents were artists. After his parents separated, he lived with his mother in London and studied portraiture and sculpture until WWII. In the 1940's, back in New York City, he was commissioned to illustrate E.B. White's first children's book-Stuart Little. He went on to illustrate many of our beloved favorites including Charlotte's Web, Bedtime for Frances, The Cricket in Times Square, and The Little House on the Prairie series. His career spanned nearly 50 years. He also tried his hand at London portraiture, as a New Yorker cartoonist, and in advertising.

After WWII, when the Harper Publishing Company was trying to introduce the Little House on the Prairie series to a new generation, Williams was commissioned to produce original art for all 8 Little House books. He nearly turned down the request because he believed drawing animals, not people was his strength. Upon agreeing to take on the task, he researched the subjects, retracing Wilder's travels with a sketchbook and camera, and even meeting with Laura and Almanzo Wilder. He began work on the illustrations in 1947 and the new editions appeared 6 years later.

In 1942, Williams took on illustration work with Golden Books. He loved the idea of being able to paint and draw without restrictions on cost. It also allowed for frequent collaboration with the most innovative picture book author of his generation-Margaret Wise Brown. Who doesn't love Margaret Wise Brown?

In the Golden Book entitled Mister Dog: The Dog who Belonged to Himself, Williams modeled the clapboard cottage after Brown's writing studio located behind a tenement row in Manhattan.

This is one of my favorite illustrations they had on display. Notice how each character is reading a book about himself.

A display card mentioned that this was the largest Garth Williams retrospective ever assembled featuring art from 28 of his best loved books. The exhibit is free, and available at the Irving Arts Center until January 27, 2019. It will next be on display at the Joslyn Museum of Art in Omaha NE from May 4, 2019-August 11, 2019. If you have the opportunity, I would highly recommend checking it out.

Over the past few weeks we have been on a road trip. We left Austin on November 27 headed for the Phoenix area. My mom and step dad winter in Buckeye Az. We were headed there to hang out with them for a few days. Our first stop was San Angelo, TX to check out Eggemeyer General Store and Miss Hattie's Restaurant & Cathouse Lounge for lunch.

Our next stop was a quick one at the Guadelupe Mountain National Park Visitor Center. We will have to come back. We were headed to Carlsbad Caverns.

This formation was called Lion's Tail.

Mirror Lake

Soda Straw formations

I love this photo. It was taken while LW shined his flashlight on a formation in the cavern.

As we walked through the caverns we started playing a little game. We were trying to see what we could picture in the different formations. Here is my favorite. I thought it looked like Frankenstein with one arm raised. What do you think?

While in Buckeye. LW and my dad got to play golf 2 days in a row. Mom and I hung out and had lunch. One night we all went to the Phoenix Zoo for their holiday ZooLights. The animals were all put away but the light display was amazing.

After Buckeye, we drove to Williams, AZ to Bearizona. It is near Flagstaff. There was snow on the ground and flurries falling. It is a drive thru wildlife refuge. There were huge bears roaming around and in the trees. We saw wolves, white bison, and deer.

After leaving Bearizona, we were headed to Las Vegas. LW's parents were flying in Sunday evening to join us. We checked in to Caesar's Palace and decided to get a drink and a snack so we walked across the street to Margaritaville. After attempting to share the largest plate of nachos I have ever seen, LW went to watch football while I gambled a bit in the Flamingo. The trip to Vegas was starting off quite well!

On Monday, we all drove to Kingman, AZ to check out the Route 66 Museum. Mom and Dad Wolff loved it because they could remember driving on Route 66 before the highways were built.

One of the exhibits had some quotes from the 1950's that I thought were interesting.

"No one can afford to be sick anymore. $35 a day in the hospital is too rich for my blood."

"Have you seen the new cars coming out next year? It's won't be long before $5000 will only buy a used one."

"We won't be going out much anymore. Our babysitter is now asking 50 cents an hour. Kids think money grows on trees." (Side note: I charged $2/hour in the late 70's.)

And my favorite from the list: "The drive in restaurant is convenient, but I doubt they will ever catch on."

There was also an electric car museum and this picture shows Willie Nelson's golf cart.

On Wednesday we left Vegas headed to see the Shanks (LW's sister and brother-in-law) who now live in Palm Desert, CA. Palm Desert sees 350 days of sun. The two days we were there it rained. Of course!

I took this picture the morning we left...sunshine!

This is Eleanor, their dog. She has her own Instagram if you want to follow her. #eleanormavisshanks

We celebrated LW's birthday with the family on Thursday. On Friday we headed to West Hollywood to stay for the weekend and visit our nephew, Gianni. LW and I checked out the Los Angeles County Holocaust Museum and the LaBrea Tar Pits. Saturday night we joined up with the Shanks and went to the Laugh Factory and saw Jeremy Piven and Dane Cook.

Gianni's place in West Hollywood

My favorite quote from the Holocaust museum comes from German Jewish poet Heinrich Heine in 1821. "Where one burns books, one will, in the end, burn people."

The LaBrea Tar pits were very interesting. A few inches of tar took down huge animals. The harder they struggled, the more stuck they got.

Columbian Mammoth-the most common mammoth in North America during the Ice Age. This is considered average size, about 15000 pounds and 12 feet tall.

Harlan's Ground Sloth-a medium sized ground sloth that stood over 6 ft tall and weighed about 1500 pounds. Primitive relations to the armadillo and the small tree sloths of Central & South America.

The Lake pit...still active

I took this picture from our hotel room window. I assume that is downtown LA. I liked how it appears the sky has a hole in it.

While in West Hollywood, we stayed at the Andaz West Hollywood Hotel. It has quite the history. In 1963, it was Gene Autry's Hotel Continental and was the first high rise hotel on Sunset Strip. In the mid 60's, as Sunset Strip became the epicenter of rock and roll, touring bands stayed here due to its proximity to local concert venues. In 1966, Jim Morrison lived in the hotel until he was evicted for hanging by his fingertips from a tenth floor balcony. In the 70's Led Zeppelin occupied several floors of the hotel. Keith Richards mooned the world from room 1015. (We stayed in room 1016.) In the 80's, Axl Rose barbecued on the balcony of his room and set off the fire alarm. As the fire department arrived, he threw steaks down to the people on Sunset Strip. Because of these antics, the hotel has the nickname "The Riot House." It is featured in movies, music videos, tv shows, songs and books. It has been featured in almost every reality tv show as well.

On Sunday, after leaving LW's parent with his sister to deliver to LAX to fly home to Omaha, we headed south to San Diego. We had dinner with Jessica and Ted Brown in La Jolla at Duke's . It was delicious, especially the Hula Pie.

We made a stop in Buckeye to see my parents one last time before heading home. Along the way , we met some new friends at a gas station and decided to have a little fun.