Up Close with Cathy Unruh; Lynn Ash

And there's a special presentation of w. we do YOU Temple St. Petersburg Sarasota. What if you could buy two of your lifelong passions and get paid for it. That's what a Bay Area man did. And then he even went on to win awards for his work. Meet him next on line. Welcome to up close I'm Kathy onramp. Our guest today said that back in the 11th grade that when he graduated the next year he wanted to work with animals or be an artist. Well he spent his life doing both. Artists Lynn ass joins us. Welcome Lynn. Thanks for being here. And he tell me about animals in art you grew up with a lot of animals around I grew up with animals and or we had animals that were coarse we had dogs and cats but we also had alligators and Bob Gibson hawks and

peacocks and so it wasn't the usual thing but you know we always had animals around that happen not a lot of people grow up with Bobcats except Regis just interested in animals and. And back during that time in rural Florida you know there were always plenty of animals around and that's what we had is. So let's say that take a bobcat for example how did you acquire the bobcat the first Bobcat I had was one that was just a small kitten the eye. We still have a produce route that went down to South Florida and we found this little bob Kit Kit and brought it home and she was a pit and after that there were just different places where people would have things like that that they wanted to find a home for and it was almost like a rehabilitation thing. And even at my house now I have had kids that were had been hit by cars and also Florida Panthers you know had two Florida Panthers that were there for a couple of

years and it was just kind of a rehab. So what about your interest in art. When and how did that start. My interest in art. I'm the youngest of six children in all of my brothers and sister have all kind of been interested in our work. And I had one brother that was the main artist. And when I was in junior high school grammar school really I would start doing a little bit of artwork in and it just kind of expanded from there. You had a natural talent you could tell right now aren't you. But after high school you went to the Academy of Fine Arts in Tampa. Right. So you knew that that's what you wanted to be a vocation. Yes. And your first job was at the Tampa Tribune. No actually my first job was in Sears in advertising. The Sears store in seminal Heintz and they did the advertising for seven of the Sears stores so I did the advertising there and then from there went to the Tampa Tribune as a staff artist.

And at that time you illustrated news stories. Yes. Did you do that with pencil paint How did you do that pin and mainly. And that was a fulfilling for you are not enough artistic expression Well actually it was a little too much because I had my own studio at home where I did my paintings and I had been selling my paintings and they had become very popular and then when I started working at the Tribune when I would get off work at night I would just be spent I couldn't do or so because I had always been interested in animals and I thought well let me see if I can get a job working with animals and then do my work at home. So that was a major change 1069 Welsh gardens. Yes I was 10 years old. Still pretty small. How did you land a job there. It was Gordon. How old did you say I was. I didn't say how old you wear scarves was 10 and it was 1969 1969 Yes. I don't know how old you were I want to even ask

if you I know is a lot older than 10 years old when you wait. I started working at Busch Gardens and I started doing the bird show as EMC of the bird show and then from there I went to an area called Boma and then to the veldt which is the larger animals I worked with 12 Bengal tigers and the main animals I worked with were the gorillas. So let me ask my question how do you go from being an artist at a newspaper to a park and say you know I want to run The Bert Show. How do you land that job. I had a friend who worked at Busch Gardens and so I knew a lot of the Busch Gardens people through him so they were familiar with me. And when I went there too. Apply for a job the zoo director and general manager knew who I was and I don't know if he had in the back of his mind well this guy is also an artist maybe someday he can do artwork for us. I don't know but I just got the job right away no problem. And once you're there I'm sure it was a natural transition to working with the larger animals because you probably talked about your background right and what you do with the big animals.

Well we just you know we would feed them of course clean out the cages and work with the veterinarians or whatever had to be done you know. And I was so attached to the end I was especially the gorillas even though they belonged to Busch Gardens I mean they were my animals you know the same thing with the cheetahs I worked with the cheetahs and I would ride around in a truck with this big cheetah with me ging who is just a sweetheart and and I considered her mine. And there's a bittersweet story about a favorite go running tar Kelly's named Hercules Yes Hercules. I worked with a pair of gorillas Hercules in Madeira and this one day they had to anesthetize Hercules to examine his legacy. His knee was swollen up and he had a reaction to the anesthesia and I and some of the other keepers in the curator when in the cage and we had to give him mouth to mouth to mouth mouth to nostril his mouth was so big you had to hold his

mouth close his lips close with both hands and put your thumb over one nostril below in the other nostril and we worked over him for about an hour and pumping his chest and everything and we lost him and. Magary his mate who is just of sweetest animal was just so distraught and so I slipped in the next cage to her for the next four nights and then they tried to find a suitable mate for her and they couldn't find one in the zoo director called me and said they were going to send her to Cincinnati. I want to ask a question we can see them on the screen. When you say you slept in the cage next to her. What was her reaction to you what was that like. Well I think it really comforted her because she knew me and. And I just didn't want her after after all of the years of her being with her Achilles just being totally by yourself because they're just like people. And I just wanted her to know that there was somebody there with her that

was you know that cared about her and that she was cared about. And I think it comforted her and then she went to Cincinnati you into the Cincinnati Zoo and they asked me if I would ride up to Cincinnati in the back of the truck with her because they knew if she became wilder or upset that I could calm her down. So I did and they put her with a big male silverback gorilla Atari. They had a large breeding group of gorillas there and and I went up there about six months after she had been there and when she saw me she just ran over to the bars was reaching through and touching my hand and smelling of her fingers everything and and and had Tori was very jealous of me he ran over to get the knuckle stance and butt. So she became pregnant and they called me early one morning Christmas morning lash her her baby was born Christmas morning. They asked me what I wanted to name

her baby she'd had a baby and it was a boy and I said Well I would like to name Hercules because even though Hercules was an assaulter that I wanted his name to go and they said well we already named him lash after you I signed my paintings. And when I was working at the Tribune they started calling me Lashon a lot of friends called me last and here's baby last one day I look at the difference in size and you know maybe hear Island say his neck is 44 inches around right now right now. Yes. Around his neck. Not a lot of people have the honor of having a gorilla named after them. And where is last today. Last years at the Jacksonville Zoo today he was at Busch Gardens for about 10 years he started out with the Cincinnati Zoo and then he went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. This is here with him when he's 3 years old and I believe you know three or four. That's the last time they allowed anybody to hold him I went up to the Cincinnati Zoo and they said he had reached the age where he was just too hard to handle. But because it

was me they said we'll make an exception and they let me hold him and took that picture. And right after that picture was taken he wanted to get down and I couldn't stop him we chased him all over the gorilla house and they said this is the last time. Why did you go from zero to zero. Actually the reason that they had sent him from other two other zoos is because they have a I. Program where they put the animals where they're needed the most and the reason he left Busch Gardens and went to the Jacksonville's is because he had two silverback male gorillas it was gardens and because of the lash last of fatherhood Tori was such a good breeder his genes in the gene pool of zoos was kind of overpopulated so they would have let him go and get the other gorilla bikini was a big silverback male. Now all this time with working with animals did you keep up with your art at the same time.

No I did not want to but 10 years that I didn't paint it all when I got really involved with the gorillas and everything it was gardens and so involved the animals were kind of took a back seat. But then the zoo director called me in one day and said that they were thinking about starting a graphics department out there and they asked if I would want to head it in. And I said no at first because I loved working with the animals so much and when I got thinking about it I went back and I said maybe you know maybe I will do that. So I did and I it was a department of one just me and then a couple of years later they gave me a partner Marvin McKnight was my partner out there and she and I worked together for 17 years. We had the graphics department and I did all of the big outdoor signs and she did all of the printed material in the T-shirts and everything. And it worked great I loved it and they got me back into my art work and it didn't just work great you won some national awards for some of the arrows and signs I just got that.

Well the first signs that I did I actually did own would because I wanted them to have this rustic effect. And with the Florida humidity and everything these wood wooden signs would last about five years before they would start rotting So I came up with this idea to take canvas and coat it with fiberglass resin in this. These are pieces of canvas were cut in the shape of a big stretched pieces of rawhide and we would mount him on these these rustic poles and we would have the live leather and bead work came down looked like they were lashed to the poles very African. Rustic looking and I would paint the African designs down borders down the side and then a painting of the animal one in a paragraph about it in these signs just held up indefinitely. Let's take a look at a couple of them one is an eagle. Now this one was actually this is one of the canvas signs right here but it is one of the signs that I do.

And we have a messiah warrior right tell us about the lawyer. That's a painting when I was one of the trips to Africa. I was very taken with the the mass eyes they were just an incredible people and did this painting of this mass warrior is a matter if you look in the background of the painting you see it's shape of the continent of Africa up in the clouds over to the right hand side just above that Rood. That's one of your little techniques isn't hiding that I didn't know that you were never going to talk about that in our little bit. So you mentioned your travels to Africa. You have traveled to many different countries in pursuit of your love of both art and animals. Right. Where all of you have been. Well I've been all over Indonesia. When we had the pandas it was Gordon's I had done some paintings there and they did posters of him so I went over to China. So Hong Kong Bangkok Singapore Borneo Java over there in. And I went to South America 500 miles

down the Amazon River. And are you always in quest of animals on these travels. No I always study the animals and take pictures and everything but the last time I went to Africa we actually did go to see the gorillas you know in the Congo and and and that part was specifically for that. But one of the trips was to. To paint elephants I was drawing sketching an elephant we were charged by this full elephant and we barely got out of there and that was just a thrill a minute through hell. All of that stuff like it's just flew up in the air. I didn't even realize until we are away from it all of my pocket stuff was all in the bottom of the jeep and have you painted a picture of men running from elephants and put up a Nike elephant you know the dust rising and everything. Well article in the Tampa trip many years ago called you the Tarzan of the arts and we recently visited your home and it's on Hillsborough County where you live in a jungle

like setting including a very special HOUSE right. The tree house I call it a tree house is actually a house a tall polish. I going to Disney World and I saw the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse and went up in it and just like everybody that sees that I was like wow I'd love to live like that and and and then it dawned on me I said well there's no reason in the world why I can't do that. So I actually built the tree house. To live in it myself but is just such a such an ordeal to move and I've got all of the all of my painting equipment everything in my house I decided just to stay put. Well this is my studio here and. The reason I have it in the living room is because it's about the only places large enough to handle large paintings like the big temple and I did was done right here and this is a painting of a coli from Africa. A friend

of mine a neighbor asked me to do this painting of this Cal and that's what I'm working on right now. And. All. The. Things you see on the wall are some of the things that I had done it was gardens this piece right here of the vulture in Guinea was the. Test piece that I did for the. The paintings that I did that were put painted on canvas they actually looked like straight straw hide in the map of Africa was something that I had done out there put 1042 That's my. Year I was born and I kind of incorporated that in and in the skulls of there are hard to be skulls. Those are animals that had either just died of old age or been struck by lightning they weren't you know hunted or killed or anything like that and be so Oryx horns of their. Own they were all part of our zoo

education department where they would show the the students out there the kids of things like ostrich eggs and you know things like that. Do you ever just walk around your house and look at all your memories. I do. I get a lot of enjoyment because it reminds me of the different trips and I used to know where every single thing came from and it was a little story behind each thing but now every once while look at something and say I care a member where I picked that up how long they got it to retire from the sky. It was in 1998 and you've kept busy since then very busy with commission work and lots of painting. Yes. You talk about in 2003 you did a large painting for the city of Tampa at some you were all depicting the story of Tampa right. Tell us about that. It was an idea that I had had years ago and I just never had gotten around to talk to them about it and I had gone down to City Hall to see Dick Greco who was a mayor

at the time who was the mayor at the time and I talked to him about it and he's always been so supportive of my work and bought a lot of paintings and he liked the idea and he called Rob and I who's the head of the Publix art program down to his office. And she loved the idea and we did the painting. And just shortly after I started on the painting I had it on a big easel in my living room want a big vertical easel. And I was outside and I fell down and tore the muscles of the road recovered muscles in my shoulder and they did really extensive surgery on that. And then about a month later while I was still in the cast a fella did the other same thing to the other shoulder I stepped in a hole and so I couldn't raise my arms up so the whole upper portion of that painting I had to lay it on a flat on a table where I could rest my arms but I couldn't reach the far side so I turned the painting around with the top of it was up against me. So the whole upper portion of the painting was all painted upside

down. That is amazing. How did she was the only way to do it it was just you know I didn't realize it you know. Once I built the table where I could rest my arms I was like This is fine this works fine. But then when I got to the part it just hurt too bad to reach my arms. So how long did it take you to do. Actual painting time probably a year or a little more. But from start to finish almost three years and the actual size is four foot by 8 foot Is that correct. Right. And let's talk about this. There are as zillion little vignettes and portraits of people right. Tell us some of your favorites. Well one of my favorites is over on the right hand side it looks like an American flag about halfway between the top and the bottom which is an American flag and all it's a no world war two troop train with a reflection of it in the water and then you have palm trees in the background in the in the blue field there with the storage is actually a big patch of blue sky with birds flying in the Flagstaff is

just a palm tree so it just gives the illusion of an American flag and all around the border are little pictures. So the border itself can little individual things that are indigenous to this area such as some things are well they have a lot of the Ybor City stuff with the devil crabs in the Cuban coffee in the Cuban sandwich and the cigars in there also a lot of the the animals that are found you know in this area go for tortoises and mockingbirds and things like that and and the. Even the roseate spoonbills and because I see this now hangs in Tampa I mean this office building where of course we have a new mayor. No longer did wealth and the mayor's no longer new either but it's not Dick Greco. Tell us where on this painting to look for your depiction of the new mayor sin actually is just above that section that I had pointed out about the American flag. There's a painting of the Fourth of July Cafe which is in West Tampa and it's

where all of the politicians used to me years ago and I did a painting of that building in behind it is a two story brick building that in reality is just a big blank wall but I put these old timey food posters or four of them and one is Mayor brand oatmeal and the next one is Pam cooking spray in a Maybelline ad with the big guy on it and then one for Oreo cookies and if you look at him it just seems like food posters. But it's Mayor Pam Iorio and she got a big kick out of that. She wasn't expecting that everybody would get it they can't get it. Am I or very cute. What if you into a painting and most and all of your career. The thing I've enjoyed painting the most probably I love painting elephants. I really do it's one of my favorites. Why. I don't know they're just so big and impressive and I just.

I enjoy pain. No other than animals I'd like to paint old weatherbeaten barns and split rail fences and fields of dead grass and scarecrows and Native Americans. Yeah you do some fabulous portraits of you in gangs and anywhere and you'll still mad. You can you can do all the animals if you had to pick the work that you're the most proud of. What would it be. I did a painting years ago called Sounds of Silence and it was all of the. I used to depict human feelings with things like raggedy and dolls and scarecrows and things like that that really weren't alive it seemed to have feelings and I did this one painting it's a real large painting and it just was a culmination of all of these scare creatives a split rail fence with the Scarecrow and I had the rag dolls and teddy bears and things like that and and it was a very large

painting and that probably is my favorite painting that I've done. What feeling or feelings was it meant to convey. There are little melancholy absolutely in but not always some of the things were happy feelings but gives a little melancholy. Everybody just sitting on the fence watching the world go by. No not really the. Well the rag doll in the Teddy Bear we're in love they've got their arms around each other in the US. The big scare crow in the background which is the focal point of the painting as a little a little sad. That is just a lot of different feelings or do you get sad when you paint something like that. I don't get sad but I'm sure that like in everybody there's that little sad spot that where you draw all that from them that I got to be going to any foreign countries any time soon or in the future I'll be going to Alaska.

A friend of mine and I were over and I are going she's another artist in the area are going to Alaska. And then from there I'll be going to Seattle I've got a niece that lives in Seattle and they want me to show my work there but I you know I love Tampa lived in Tampa my whole life I was born here and I just want to. Focus serious well quickly in Alaska is there any animal that you particularly want to see. I want to see a movie I've never seen is all of the animals that I've seen in use for Mill years I am with animals. I've seen pictures of moves I've seen him on television I've seen him in the movie but I've never seen a real moose and I would love to see a moose and you have to see a grizzly like a.. Oh absolutely. You say you make it clear that Tampa is your home Tampa Bay area is where you're going to say you're not showing your work right now here but. So if we wanted to buy one of your works. What I've got to do is just locate a gallery insert showing here I've been I had been showing in Cape Cod for about three or four years and then I

stopped showing there in order to do the Tampa painting. And once it was over I had a number of requests to do paintings. And I'm just finishing those up now no I'm not going to be doing commissioned paintings but I just need to find a place to show my work put them in a show paint what I want to paint. They always sell better I never I never have a supply of paintings on hand that they sell as fast as I can get them. Well we'll look for them. Yes it's been a real pleasure and I looked through your scrapbook and some great stuff. Well thank you very much Kathy. We appreciate you being here it was a pleasure to be here thank you Annette. And thank you for joining us for up close. I'll see you next time. You're.

With. Oh. How would you like to drive around with wild animals as your passengers and no your children don't count or sleep in a cage next to a grieving gorilla or be the MC of a bird show.

Leon Ashe did all of that. There's even a gorilla named after him. While he worked at Busch Gardens will hear about his wild adventures and his art. On the net. Up Close.