“This land is so wonderful, and there is so much land on which to be free. Mother Nature has given us so much, and she gives us the feeling that this world is for us. ‘Look what I have here for you,’ she says again and again.”
— Bill Alexander
Bill’s art was not only inspired by the Old Masters, like Rembrandt, there were also modern artists that he admired. He liked Norman Rockwell, but his favorite artist was Charles Russell. Bill discovered Russell’s art while on one of his trips into the West in the late 1960s. Bill was touring with the artist Violet Parkhurst. (Ed Note: Violet died in 2008). They formed an art tour called “Americana Art Circuit”. Bill and Violet toured with about three hundred paintings throughout several western states. They displayed the paintings at fairgrounds, shopping malls, and community halls. They also gave painting demonstrations. While Bill was painting, people milled about and talked with him about their lives and their artwork.
Charles Russell
While on tour in a small town in Montana, Bill met an older woman who started telling him about Charles Russell. She had known Russell and related much about Russell’s life. Born in Missouri, Russell traveled to Montana in 1880 to become a cowboy. She told Bill how Russell began painting the West as it was during the late 1800’s and how Russell was a wild spirit.
Helena, Montana, has a gallery of Russell’s paintings. By the time the tour arrived, Bill was so interested in learning more about Russell, he went to see those paintings for himself. The first painting Bill saw stopped him cold. Bill said to himself, “Boy, this guy can paint!” It was Russell’s “Camp Cook’s Troubles”. Bill could see the movement and spirit Russell put into that painting. It had hundreds of little details that captured the spirit of the men and the Old West. Bill loved the big, bold strokes Russell used throughout the painting.
Bill felt a real affinity to Russell because of Russell’s love of the land and the people around him. Bill talks about Montana in some of his videos. He talks about how the horizon never seems to end, and the land floats away into the clouds. Bill loved the way Russell captured the people of Montana and showcased them against the wild, bold vastness of the land. Bill admired Russell’s imagination and his skill as an artist. Russell knew color and Bill admired the pinks and oranges that leapt from Russell’s canvas. Russell used a special blue for creating perspective. Bill noticed how this particular blue disappeared with the horizon. Bill recognized Russell as a real artist who painted for the joy of art – a man, much like himself.
Freedom
Bill always felt that if you have enough creative power, you can do anything. You can use it to create poems. You can put it in songs. You can, of course, use it to create masterpieces. In Bill’s mind, creation was freedom.
Raised in a feudal society and compelled to live in a fascist regime, Bill had a real appreciation for the freedom he found in America. He often felt that Americans took their freedom for granted. Litter and, sometimes, real garbage lying on the streets, saddened Bill. He felt sorry for children who had to live in tenements and breathe stale city air. The crime and poverty surrounding Bill always distressed him. It seemed to Bill that America’s motto was “What can I get for free?” Bill even felt that music created an environment of disillusion and depression. He said that living in freedom can make us sloppy if we are not careful.
Bill was always impressed with the story of America. How Americans built a wilderness into a world power. An accomplishment that great, he felt, was one that should make Americans proud. Why, then, would Americans restrain or even discourage that pride? Bill said, “We all need the breeze of freedom. The spirit of freedom is in every heart. We must awake and embrace it.”
Bill also said, “It is such a joy to be out in the land with Mother Nature! You smell the Springtime, you feel the mighty power of the mountains, you hear the leaves in the wind telling you how good it all is. You want to sing about it, paint it, write poems about it. Why do we want to give junk to generations after us when we can give them a beautiful tomorrow? We have a good land, and it is all theirs. It is lying all around us.”
Bill’s Dream
Bill had a dream. He wanted to get children out of the city and into Mother Nature. Bill always felt that Mother Nature was the best teacher, whether on the Colorado River, or in the mountains of Montana. She could instill love in their hearts, and help them create beautiful songs and paintings about the land.
Bill knew the importance of the land to life and freedom. He wanted to take American boys and girls across the country to experience it for themselves. He would tell them to sing about the land, and teach them to create almighty paintings to illustrate the songs. They would travel through the towns and cities, and into the countryside. They would visit shopping centers, fairs, church halls, civic centers, any place people gathered. And they would create beauty and bring joy wherever they went, for all Americans. They would help make a little breeze in the land.
It was only a dream, one of many. It was a private little dream of Bill’s. But, just maybe, this one might come true.
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