Sterling Price – Missouri’s General

Recently finished reading about the remarkable and tragic story of Sterling Price, a man who risked and lost much for his beloved Missouri home. I was prompted to go out and find out more on the internet, and noticed that there is a General Sterling Price Days Festival in Keytesville, Mo. Upon seeing this, I wondered how many young people (or adults, for that matter), know much about this Missouri hero. And so, I set out to create an illustration that would stylistically capture Mr. Price with a friendly style – which will hopefully prompt people into finding out more about our history.

Platte County History Series – Continued

The Platte County Historical Series continues to fill much of my time, but in a good way. I recently traveled down to the Missouri State Historical Society in Columbia, Missouri, in order to view their microfiche archives of local papers from the 1850-1870 period. It continues to be a unique challenge working with this subject, but I hope it can continue serving to bring more interest into the powerful stories which our ancestors experienced.

Platte County History Series

I’ve continued to spend a great deal of time on the Platte County History Series. This is a project that I’ve very much enjoyed doing, as there’s so much local and state history that people can be proud of, or find great interest in. It’s been fun trying to bring historical incidents to life, and I’ve been challenged continually by trying to have an accurate portrayal of the time period. As a result, I’ve continued my research not only through reading Paxton’s book, but attempting to find local accounts and photographs. This interest has grown to become a bit of a side-line hobby, and I recently invested in a metal detector. It’s a thrill to find artifacts that local  predecessors have left behind, and absolutely provides a true connection to our history.

Many of the upcoming illustrations will deal with the Civil War era, and the tragic events which helped shape Northwest Missouri. Stay tuned, or subscribe to the local Landmark Newspaper!

The Story of Paul Released!

The story of Paul has been released as a PDF download document on this site. This book was a collaborative effort between Matthew Silber (who illustrated it), and his wife Dawn Silber (who researched, utilized scripture, and gathered it into an easy-to-read format). Access the story (a 3 megabyte PDF) either through the image posted to the right, or at the “Children’s Stories” link to the left. Please, if you enjoy it, please leave a comment. Thank you!

Ahsoka’s Hot Rod

Vector illustration of Ahsoka from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and part of my vehicle series dedicated to my son, and his shared interest in the series. He also really seems to like the character of Ahsoka. I thought I’d try a different style with this one – more of a “cute” style, which sums up her character from the first couple seasons. Likely as the character becomes more mature and serious in the show, this won’t be quite so fitting.

Historical Illustration Series

As seem in the Platte County Landmark – depicts the history of the County, and covers events as written by William Paxton – a famous county historian who lived in the area during the founding of Missouri, up until the late 1890′s.

Orphan School

For this piece, I did a bit of research to find out what this structure used to look like. As it no longer exists, I had to visit the area historical society, and find a sketch included in an 1877 County Atlas. Utilizing this sketch, I drew my own version, but tried to pay tribute to the original artist – who unfortunately didn’t sign his work. I’ve noted other work that seems to have the same style, but no signature – not sure who this mysterious person could be. Anyway, he or she includes the people very active around the structures that are drawn, which is what I did here too – it really lends life to the picture.

Critical Press Media Podcast

I had the honor of speaking a bit on the Critical Press Media Podcast a couple weeks back. Follow the below link to hear a discussion on star wars, gaming, art, and worldview issues surrounding the creative mind.

Critical Press Media Podcast “Know Buddy I know”

Government funded art

The past several days I’ve been thinking about my livelihood as an artist in the state of Missouri. Being aware of the current concerns that artists may lose governmental funding for their artwork, I’ve had to assess where I stand on the issue. And I can say, after thinking about it for a while, that I don’t support governmental funding of art. I’ve worked hard as an artist to have even a small audience who MIGHT appreciate the work I do. I’ve literally cried over being frustrated from work, questioned what I do, and pursued other avenues of putting my gifts to work – all without a government handout, or stamp of approval for what I do (Granted, being an American citizen in itself offers far more opportunity than many in our world). But I come back to art because I really love it – and I love the way it allows us to creatively express. Do I really want the government to approve or disapprove of what I do? Not really. Would I wish that the government tell others to look at my art through the utilizing of tax-payer dollars to fund my projects? No. Art to me is a community effort. We live and survive by our communities appreciating what we do, and seeing that the talent we have is a vital one to them. It may take a lot of work and effort, but our “voice”, whether it be artist, writer, mechanic, or accountant, are services that we can provide well for our community. We should seek to understand the people we live around, and deliver the best product we can to them – and as an artist, I try to do that. Government funded “life” (welfare, special funding for agenda driven projects, etc) may be nice for the short term, but ultimately doesn’t allow anything to grow or flourish over the long-term – especially the unique voice that our blood, sweat, and tears have grown into something truly special.

Obi-Wan’s Jeep

It’s not often Obi-Wan get’s a break, but when he does, he enjoys taking across the deserts of Tatooine, or the forests of Felucia in his Jeep. Of course, he can’t forget “Little Ani”, his German Shepherd!