Main Street, Wyoming; 522; Gollings

Main Street is made possible in part by grants from energy to be a part of Wyoming's future in the uranium exploration production Industry Council for the Humanities enriching lives of people through the study of history as. A work for the rest of my life is ahead of me. With only one thing that would ever take me from to be younger and have the country open and unsettled as it was when I first made right. We're at the National Wildlife art museum in Jackson where the work of Bill Garland

is on tour. Bill galling as a cowboy and an artist lived in Sheridan Wyoming at the turn of the century in his art he captured the last days of the open range. I'm Deborah Hamilton today on mainstreet Wyoming. We're going to introduce you to a man that some call Wyoming's Charlie Russell. When Bill goslings died in one thousand thirty two his friend and fellow artist Hans Kleiber wrote Bill I think will be considered the last of the three big artists that were drawn to the pioneering West and his work was inspired and sprang convincingly from its soil unlike the first of the three was Remington and after him came Charles Russell and the last was Arbil GA lines. We asked Peter hacer director of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center about the comparison between Wyoming's Bill Collings and the well-known Montana artist Charles Russell. And they both kind of learn about being creative people from their from their environment.

They were inspired by the world around them as opposed to being inspired so much by an academic training situation. Basically they learn from their their peers. Basically they learn to critique themselves and to respect the criticism of average people around them who live that world that they were in. Bill Ward a Wyoming physician an art collector who has specialized in The Life and Work of Bell darlings shared additional insight about the development of Boeing's reputation. He was very self demeaning very temperamental a gentleman. He didn't realize the value of his art. He had no one to market his art except the furniture store and shared in a few exhibits. I think the Collings was Wyoming's under-rated unknown and undervalued artist and people are finally

beginning to see his work in this exhibit. Bill was born in the territory of Idaho in 1878 reports son of Tel and ally Collins. Yes mother died when he was two and he and his brothers were sent back to Michigan to be raised by his grandmother in 1886. Bill's father remarried when the boys returned to his homestead outside of Lewiston Idaho. It was this first winter on the ranch that I took an interest in driving my brother over the next to the oldest could do about anything. It seemed to me. That among his many accomplishments was his ability to draw a horse in out life on a slate. Then he put on a saddle and bridle those simple drawing stick in my memory as clear as any memory I have and certainly created in me a desire to draw. But I have no idea how to do it. Collins wrote in his autobiography about the appeal of those days of his childhood.

There was everything there that we wanted. Horses and cattle Indians and cowboys river to swim in and fish in good hunting and no game was. We had seen just the things that thrill a boy. There were old prospectors who had been forty niners who carried a cap and ball six shooter wherever they went. There were men left from the trappers period. The town was literally full of Indians of the Nez Pierce tribe. He decked in the most gorgeous colored blankets faces painted beautiful beaded buckskin garments and lots of their old time finery. They were mostly bare headed but occasionally a war bonnet scene or a buffalo horn had grass. There were no schools in these early days his father caught him and then they moved to Chicago. So his father could develop mining equipment. Then he finished school there with an eighth grade diploma and I have to believe that

he had a fairly good education between his father and the Chicago schools. Chicago did not amount to a great deal. Nevertheless we were doomed to stay for a time. I cannot say that I was happy but I had no say in the matter. We soon had all the boys in the neighborhood throwing lassos and playing cowboy. In the spring of 1893 I had my rank form photographed in the new suit with a diploma in one hand and a straw hat in the other along with the rest of my class. Diplomas sat in beautiful writing that I had been through the eighth grade in Chicago Public Schools measurement. I never used a diploma. I have seen it a couple of times since but did not enroll it. It was the only one I ever received that if I never get any more use out of any I may get in the future than I got out of this one. I will not meet them I'm sure. Then after several years of working in Chicago as a draftsman.

Went to Belle from South Dakota on stock return tickets on the route. One early morning in August 1896 I woke up in a chair car rolling across the plains of western South Dakota together with a boy chum who also had the Western fever. In marshland and we brought a couple of horses and headed north. This seemed like real life astride a horse in the Arctic Circle ahead of us. We stopped at all the towns on the Northwestern many of them afforded good amusement for two boys our age. They were typical Western. You know rich south the quarter for instance the cowboys rode their horses into the saloon and took a drink. Necessarily show off for there were many show off too often men were seen with six shooters on their person. They wore them in a very matter of course way as if it were part of their dress as it were. Gambling was wide open

every saloon was a gambling house and there were many of the dance halls in the shooting up of the town on all sides I'm glad I have had the opportunity to see and to remember. He spent a winter there and then went to his brother De witts ranch. On wells but near the Yellowstone River and during his time in Bell fouché And in Montana on his brother's ranch he did a limited amount of art. I spent the winter herding a thousand head of cattle along with some cowboys famous old turkey track. We sat in bad weather. As this letter was a long cold blizzard struck us in March. I've experienced many winter storms in the West but none compared with this one. For thirty six hours. The snow blew Sorel. Fast and Furious one cannot see anything distinctly 10 feet away. I've heard many storms since called blizzards.

But could not intrude such. In the early spring of 903 I sent to Montgomery Ward and company for small collars and other equipment to paint with and when the soul went off I made a few crude attempts at picture making. That summer I covered the mess tent with charcoal studies Horsehead and certain characters who worked with the wagon. My brother had taken some of these first attempts to Sheridan Wyoming and Mr. W. E. Freeman in a furniture store became interest throughout his career. Bill was encouraged by his brother and because of that's a point in his life as a cowboy. In July we had just worked a herd and shipped and were about to get out and gather another herd when a letter came to me from Mr. Freeman and shared with a check for fifty dollars enclosed and vise that I better make smaller

pictures and send them as he felt he could sell some more. I was bewildered. I hated to quit the wagon leave my string of horses for someone else to ride. His brother De Witt took some paintings to a furniture store in Sheridan and they sold readily and he was encouraged by his brother and the editor of The Chicago are you to go to the Chicago Art Academy which he did on two occasions. The Chicago Academy of Fine Arts was the school I attended. I went two months at the end of which I was informed I had won a scholarship in composition. This is not so much bewildered me as I felt it was too good to be true but it was for it came out in the Chicago papers with a picture of someone else labeled by itself. There are several periods in his life when in early 1900s when he went back to Chicago and studied at the academy which was a

major art school at that time. And I think it's there that he really worked on. Composition on how to. Put the elements of a painting together. On color which he always recorded in his writings so it's a great struggle for him. And also on modeling the figure and particularly the human figure but also as well the horse which of course was a very important subject in his career. Finances were always short so school soon let out for me. He considered Wyoming his home he built a cabin and shared in a studio. He more or less lived out in a tent. Until I got married then he built another cabin or shack as he called them which didn't suffice for his wife and that's why I

ended up in a divorce. Many years later. Bill had trouble changing his living habits when he married a young age of 39. He bathed as he had on the reins. He worked up a sweat rubbed down with salt and jumped in a cold stream. He and his bride Scrivener separated after a year she moved to California but they were not divorced until 10 years later in one thousand twenty. With the National Wildlife art museum in Jackson spoke with us about as an artist Well he was a very fascinating man and a very uneven artist as far as his talent went and he was as I said he was a great When he was on one painting well and he was not so good when he was not painting.

He wanted to be on the range it wanted to record that way of life. And I think that was. His main. Issue as being an artist is to record what was happening at that time. Popularity in the surrounding Ranch area was their way of life adapted a little bit of history to the students of work today. One of the problems Collins presents to his audience is the dramatic change in his ability as an artist during his lifetime. However early Collings paintings no matter how rudimentary are enjoyed for the picture they paint of the vanishing open range. He actually considered himself a better man and horseman than an artist throughout his entire career.

He never was really satisfied with his art work until the very end of his career about 1928. Among Bill's early words is a series of 26 paintings commissioned by Edith and Johnson. Mrs Johnson who ran with her husband in northern Niagara County had written the cowboy's alphabet. Bell's paintings illustrated her poetry. The project was completed in 1912 but was too costly for publication. Most of Collings 26 paintings remained in a trunk until 1987. As for our old cross a who is booked for the Cowboys three times a day on Roundup or ranch his meals are a treat for hungry Cowboys to. Use for Donal the tenderfoot. Do you think the Cowboys are terribly rude. We get sick from the prairie ride and they dance attendance at his side. J is for the lad who's assigned the cabbie on the trail to mind the lightning must disturb him. No thunder make them run to gather them again would not be

fun. For a poisonous snake which when found in his bed makes the cowboy way. A quick shot from his gun and things or the cowboy crawls in. My inability to get down to work seriously I've never been able to explain what I wanted and knew that some day I would do so. Nevertheless I was always easily influenced away from my work to visit different ranches. Taking my colors with me of course but practically doing nothing. Back at Mayo curator for the galling is traveling exhibit on by Mr. Mrs. Arthur Nicholas described darling's work has gone as dead as he actually would go out day after day on his horse and just notice everything from a change in the shadows to the light going down and he even sketch sitting on top of his horse sometimes and he does observe everything and record it as he knew it

yet a continual struggle. He fought with his colors throughout his career which probably wasn't as much of a struggle as he thought it was. This color game was the worst problem bad has the bucket by the ocean and one you can get a chance to work with that which pleases him. You sure do. At present I have not had this bunch of colors completed till about a month ago but since I've had it I don't want to thing else Bill going Scott advice from from people like Russell particularly Russell's protege Jody young. Help go and overcome some of his some of his technical and aesthetic kinds of problems. Living in Sheridan I think that actually was actually the town was a pretty important on a small scale arts center for Wyoming in the early 20th century. The artist Joseph Henry Sharpe.

Lived relatively nearby at Crown wage and SI in Montana. And gulling certainly knew Shar very early or very early into the century is as early as 19 0 6 they had met and traded stories and Sharpe had a considerable artistic training and background in European study. And would come and criticised Collings paintings and give him advice. Collings carried on an extensive correspondence regarding his art. One typical letter reads Dear Joe thanks for the picture of that horse is sure a stem winder for looks and I guess that all ran a hand that setting on him is capable of doing the fine work when it comes to teaching something pretty decent weather here frosty nights and bright warm days and working good all paint now for a spell will start itching maybe about April first. I sure have a lot of oil work to do. I was amused at Bill's reproduction you

said. He has no ideas about Charlie's and he can't do it. It's wrong to pattern after Russell. There never can be but the one Russell and he did his work well. He was a strong man. I can't look at his stuff myself without feeling his influence and I am damn careful to keep from thinking about anything of his. I have seen when I am composing a stunt I say this because it shows Russell's strong work. There is a swing to it that catches a fellow and it will influence a fellow if you don't look out. Well Bill has a long way to go and posing around isn't going to put him any place not wearing clothes like wrestle. You'll get further. Go and make it. He had a lot of a variety of friends but he never had anyone very close to. He was a very generous man by the same time was very selfish man so he's very complicated that you find in these letters as well. Colleagues frequently used friends their horses even their apparel and his paintings.

One of the friends easily recognized in Collings work is dot spear I believe. He worked quite a while for the spear brothers Cattle Company which as well as spear and Doc spear at one time they had as many as 58 thousand head of cattle and it seems that they supplied the cattle for the crow and Cheyenne agencies and they usually called on Bill Collings to handle the holding of the cattle until they could be dispersed to the Indian docks fears granddaughter actually happened to come through the museum and was able to take a look at the exhibit and was sharing some stories with me about Bill one of which he had he was very poor man. Never made much from his art but one winter to call when I had a buffalo broke. And you know was his pride and joy. Met an ending and thought maybe a bit more than he did so he

just took it off his back and leave it to the Indian. And this happened to be you know just the way he dealt with people in life. Why the mid-1920s conquered his problems with color form and composition but the world you tried to capture on canvas had disappeared. Every time I go out in the hills I get more and more convinced that there is no border west. It's plumb sick and. There is no right or left that has a swelled head used to have the talk of foreign tongue I do things backwards. Well there is too many gates and land old trails leading to water called bridle path. No one seems to know a country by creeks and divides or they don't buy hay stacks and fancy corner sign or siren bridge. Read. Endless other manmade thing. If the hay is hauled away when a fellow ain't there to see it the next time he comes by his last.

He really did pushes are barely made enough to live on. He was only broke really. Always owed people money but paid them back made sure he paid them back. Dolly has developed a new skill when Hans Kleiber taught him how to make Dolly's work selling better fibers in the area. Next stunt as he called it was the production of Pennant Christmas cards with his own verse included. The cards were readily purchased by locals in 1930 Bill personally sent over 900 Christmas cards to his many many Indian paintings. He was able to do more facilitated by his friendship with the Indians on the agencies. The Indians liked him he ran the beef issue for the unions. He had many Indian friends. That's why he was able to paint the ABM so see saw them and not many other people

saw. Us with that degree of intimacy will going. To age of 50 with a ten dollar horse and a twenty dollar saddle you finished paintings which were on they were all sold to pay his debts and expenses. Only a few years before he had written a work for the rest of my wife or to Heaven with only one thing that would ever take me from the younger i have the country open and unsettled as it was when I first made my profession. Today the works of Bill Collins can be found in schools private homes and museums visitors have really enjoyed the exhibit. The one that we've noticed that they really have liked is Indian sunset and I think that's primarily because it's it's such a beautiful painting and it is from later and his life

so he has really mastered the colors and composition. I think some of the other fine ones have been his self-portrait. Which shows him as he saw himself as a cowboy cowpuncher. Many shared in families acquired during Bill's life. There are quite a few pieces of bill going to our community and I'm sure there are many but I don't know about the school district has a number actually going to pay into the hangar for my library and Sheraton and. They acquired those two gifts by the graduating classes. Also Parent Teachers Association have raised money to donate paintings to the school system. The Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody has two colleagues that fight at the Round-Up saloon and the shifting pack. The most extensive Collings collection owned by Mr. Mrs. Arthur Nicholas is currently on tour appearing at the CME Russell museum in Great Falls Montana. The National Wildlife art museum in

Jackson University of Wyoming art museum in Laramie the national Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City and the Gene Autry Museum in Los Angeles. While me his room is a very interesting state. It has been a Mecca to American papers from the 30s. This was where you can go to to find the image of what the West was and it was like that. For another several generations and it was it's kind of it is the bit. There were two alluring forms of excitement in the atmosphere at this time. The war with Spain and the Klondike Gold Rush. Neither one appealed to me so much as a chance to ride the open ring. I realize the cowboy days were about over. The older men in the game told me as much and I love to see them be a part of a police the last. Like many artists what we know of Bill darlings is a lot less than what we don't know.

But his work in the journal he kept over the years tell us a great deal about this modest man who rode and painted so well. February 1931 got a ton of coal when he came over to buy a sack but I gave it to him. Family having a tough time of it. March 20. Woke up at 2:00 a.m. with the snow drafting through the shacks cracks on my face. Six below freezing this morning finished picture map. We're like I'm out of jail. All through with advertising and other commercial work. Aug. 16 when paint in a given color a lot of thought like Levi can arrive at some set ideas with regard to it soon. It's always been a hard game for me. When the pictures show to see Gary Cooper and Mary Roberts Rinehart story. September 26. Weasel bear is here. I gave him shoes

pants buffalo coat dark spirit gave me some cereal and one dollar. Beautiful tonight right. Headed for Mackay saying that Sam's picture any time finished. Remember Sixx paid a lot of small debts but a sheep blind corduroy coat and sent my other one. December 19th 1931. Jane had left by car. They. Help them pack. Let them thermos bottle in a blanket. Made some kindling and shaving so they could start a fire. I've caught in a bad storm. But his legacy to his work as he tried to honestly portray. This country was worth living. There were some

prairie deer in the hills besides wolves and coyotes aplenty. It all seemed apparent to me. Main Street Wyoming is made possible in part by grants from energy to be a part of Wyoming's future in the uranium exploration and production industry for the Humanities enriching lives of Wyoming people through the study of Wyoming history values and ideas.