(upbeat music) - [Narrator] On this episode of "Postcards".

- Once in a while I go in and it seems like that piece finds me and that piece will inspire me to do something with it or keep it as it is and just stare at it until I can't stare at it anymore and then get into something else.

Just look at it, oh man, I think, it's so cool.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] "Postcards" is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by; Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Mark and Margaret Yigal Julene on behalf of Shalom Hill farms, a retreat and conference center in a Prairie setting near Windom, Minnesota.

On the web at shalomhillfarm.org.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a year round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information at explorealex.com.

The Lake Region Arts Councils Arts Calendar, an arts and cultural heritage funded digital calendar showcasing upcoming art events and opportunities for artists in West Central Minnesota.

On the web at lrac4calendar.org.

Playing today's new music plus your favorite hits, 96.7 Kram, online at 967kram.com.

(birds chirping) (telephone ringing) - This is Ric, sorry, I can't take your call right now, so please leave a message.

(beep) - [Man] The bright sun rose to the shiny faces and played and danced being in love.

Had no worries about possessions.

We chose talk, have babies.

Our babies had babies with cats, dogs, cars, home stuffed out to the ceiling.

All around us was abundance.

Where the hell did it all come from?

There was much laughter and joy along with heartbreaks.

With tears, we buried our loved ones.

Independently grounds they cultivated.

Seasons came and went to the blur.

So soon it came, so soon it would pass.

Soon I will watch my final sunset and humbleness and take my final leave.

My shadow shall cast no more upon this earth.

But what a time, what a place?

What a time it was?

- I wrote a song called "Summer Love" in 1966.

It took us eight hours to record this.

Okay, I'll do it.

Now.

(soft rock music) ♪ I stare, is it real ♪ ♪ I can't explain how she comes and goes ♪ ♪ Without her name ♪ ♪ Although I know that she'll be back someday ♪ ♪ When summer comes ♪ ♪ She is that way it's true ♪ ♪ Yes it is, it's true ♪ It was big in this area, and we knew we hit the big time when we were listening to the K-O-T-E, which was the radio at that time and they had call in requests playing.

And somebody called in and said, play "Summer Love" by Napoleon First and his relatives and we all just, we did it, we were on, we made it, we made it and we actually really didn't.

We'd end up opening for the Dave Clark Five and I'm going, wow, waiting for people to go, wow, and they go, who are they?

But anyway, they were quite famous at that time.

I'm starting to remember a lot of things that I'd forgotten that would come back to me about these places we played in.

And, you sound just like the record, and that was the thing.

If you sound like the record you were great.

You sound like John Lennon.

Oh, I made it.

♪ She never came it's true ♪ ♪ I do, I love her so ♪ ♪ Summer's long ♪ ♪ Don't let her go, it's true ♪ ♪ How I do love you ♪ ♪ How I do love you ♪ I started drawing when I was out in the West Coast of mountains and stuff and of course my mom was always encouraging me about art and stuff.

And she says, "you need to be in an art school".

So I started out in graphic arts.

I wanted to be an illustrator.

Then I was interviewed by a scout for Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

So I was accepted there.

I went back there to fine arts.

Of course the academics I had no interest in and I found out that I'm the best teacher.

The things in front of you are the teachers.

(upbeat music) I started drawing.

I became obsessed with the life of Van Gogh and he didn't need teachers or anything.

And I kind of went with that learning and suffrage type situation and got me in a little bit of trouble, but it also enhanced my life and I had other jobs to pay the bills and stuff, but I always kept at it.

I was a basement artist or a kitchen artist.

Then all of a sudden I got very interested in sculpture, with casting.

The pieces got bigger and bigger and then I had my first commission in '83, the pioneer home, and I made the sculpture of grandpa and grandma holding an umbrella with the water kind of coming down and it reminded me of my grandpa and grandma.

(upbeat music) I was diagnosed with heart disease at 33.

I went in the hospital, they did angiograms, which were a nightmare in the 80s.

Those people that know what angiograms are, I've had 21 of them.

Two of my veins are plugged up and they said, "we can't let you go.

"We got to do open heart surgery tomorrow."

I'm 33 years old, invincible.

Hello?

Well, at that time they always blamed our lifestyle.

It wasn't.

I find out later on when I went to the mail that it said genetic situation, and then it had attacked my carotid arteries and so far I'm still here, but it's slowly closing.

This one plugged up totally.

This one was 80% closed.

So they put in a stent that failed.

And that's where it's been and it's gone down, from 35% to 20% is going down.

And this is closing up too.

So I'm on a mission to get it all done.

(upbeat music) The thing that was funny is that, this vision made things, it wasn't blurry, it would make things smaller.

So if I was looking at you, your left side of your face was normal and then your other side was shrunk and I would keep laughing at my wife.

She goes, "Why are you laughing at me?"

You're not, I can't explain it.

It was like Picasso on steroids or his other brother Rubrik.

The optometrist that was giving me these shots says, "You're the first one that's ever said "that you enjoyed what you saw."

Anyway, it saved my eyes.

He says, "if I don't do this, you're gonna lose your eye".

That's why I have the hat and stuff.

I'm very sensitive to lighting.

And actually, it's a fashion statement or something, I don't know.

(upbeat music) I did ink and so many illustrations came in.

I was introduced to the Pitta graph pin, which is a mechanical pin and I was able to do these very fine detailed pieces of men riding see horses that lived under the sea and airships.

I did a lot of that.

I even sent a piece to Jacques Cousteau.

I did a drawing of a trigger fish.

I put a bunch of stamps on it and I said, Jacques Cousteau, France, the Calypso, Jacques Cousteau, the Calypso.

It was the name of his boat.

I never did hear from him.

(upbeat music) I no longer do those but it developed into the other art that I'm doing.

I have about 50, 60 sketchbooks.

And I actually, sometimes I work off of what I drew 20 years ago and go, what the hell, what was I thinking there?

And so I'd enhance it a little bit or erase something or just put it on the easel and way I go.

I found this in a sketchbook and I went, wow.

I would like to try.

I didn't even come close to it.

It doesn't matter.

This is what came out.

But what I was referring to is like, a lot of times I'd go out looking for inspiration.

You take a chunk of it home, plop it on the table.

And this is part of how I work.

(upbeat music) But anyway, this is all my past.

So these are scientifically laid out.

I don't know how I keep the pallet going because this is how it is, all the time, and yet I seem to able to keep that color scheme going.

(upbeat music) Pastels are extremely easy to work with, but yeah, I can get what I want really quick.

And what they do is they represent my experiences, what I see, it's a very spiritual thing.

Fish out of water is my theme.

There's always a fish floating around that shouldn't be there, but it is and sometimes I have them underneath a pastel coming out, picking out.

(upbeat music) The colors, everything is, it's all.

That spiritual reflection of my inner self in what I've seen, heard and felt.

Even though some people don't understand the work and some people say I keep looking at it, and I keep seeing things and I like that.

(upbeat music) (bird cawing) I don't know if there's a real, I call it assemblage art because all I did was assemblage.

I became very obsessed with antiques and I love history.

And I started going to, had a lot of good rummage sales, a lot of flea markets, auctions galore.

I had all this stuff and one night I was experimenting with glue and some of this stuff and too much chocolate, too much coffee and pretty soon I started assembling some of the stuff.

Nonsensical, take something from that and something from this, put it together and you got something totally different with wheels.

You put wheels on anything, it becomes something different.

I've been doing these things for about 30, 35 years, almost nonstop.

We go into this room where all these images are.

And this is one of my favorite ones for the moment.

(upbeat music) They kind of assemble themselves.

I'm there to help it out.

There's no rhyme or reason and that's the fun of it.

(upbeat music) This is called Bonneville Bob.

It's a new type of propulsion system.

It's a model of it.

He turned it down and they haven't found him yet.

(upbeat music) I love going through antique shops.

My eyes wear up pretty quick and I have enough to keep me busy.

But once in a while I go in and it seems like that piece finds me.

And that piece will inspire me to do something with it or keep it as it is and just stare at it until I can't stare at it anymore and then get into something else.

Just look at it, oh man, I think that's so cool.

(upbeat music) I worked at the state hospital, I started in '78.

I was there for about 20 years and I would connect with a few other people that were influencers or liked art and they'd come up and show me stuff.

So I took one guy, his name was Wally Jersey, he's long gone but, I worked with him.

I love, I wish I had that piece, I don't know where it is, but I actually, I drew the face, he helped me with the body.

It was rolled on to the wall in that part where he lived and the next morning the night person came up to me and he says he's been up all night.

He had it all colored.

Wally was an awesome guy.

But there was a lot of beautiful people there as well.

The clients were so eager to love and accept you and trusting.

(upbeat music) I worked on pins and needles for quite a while.

I was scared.

Fear, when is it gonna happen?

When is it gonna happen?

And I found out that most people in 10 years had another surgery.

And I said, there's no way.

The surgery I had was horrible.

It has, everything was metal, the catheters and everything.

Now, there are these little sliver things that you can't even see.

It has changed so much that you're in there for probably less than three days and you're out again, heart surgery and all.

However, I'm done, I'm done.

They didn't offer.

They can't even do a transplant.

I'm done, that's fine.

I'm okay with it.

I kinda like it.

I don't have to make any decisions.

(upbeat music) And I got over the fear of having a heart attack.

My parents took me to Cayman Islands.

I started smackling again.

I started diving and I kept going.

Sea of Cortez was my go-to place.

In fact, when I go way down as far as I could and just sit there and look up and see part of the sun shining through.

That was the most peaceful feeling.

(upbeat music) Sometimes I feel cheated, but at the same time I get a chance to have people go, "oh wow, I love that."

I'm not gonna lie, this keeps me alive.

It keeps me going, it keeps the passion going.

I'm not gonna let it beat me.

♪ There's a hole in my head, hole in the head ♪ ♪ I'm walking around and I should be dead ♪ ♪ Hole in my head, hole in my head ♪ ♪ I'm walking around and I be dead ♪ ♪ But I'm still here ♪ ♪ Yes, I'm still here ♪ ♪ Enough said ♪ (soft rock music) I don't have a serious bone in my body, except I don't know why my heart did this, but I think there's a, I have a feeling of what's going on.

The creator wants me to slow way down and take a look and see and where have you been and what you've been doing.

And I've seen some pretty incredible things.

♪ The wind comes from the East ♪ ♪ Blows to the West ♪ ♪ Over the mountains ♪ ♪ To the California it goes ♪ - Once in a while, whether I want to or not, somebody will come in and buy one of my art pieces.

My pastels and what I like is their expression and their reaction to... One lady recently came in, didn't know what she wanted, but she had seen something my sister had had and I had one piece left and she was just, the excitement on her face was, just that moment, we came all this way for that moment, it was worth it.

It was wonderful.

It's not about wanting to be famous or anything.

I wanna be recognized as an artist that gave something back.

(upbeat music) (somber music) - Thank you everybody for coming to our impromptu 80th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

We're very blessed today to have a good friend of our museums, Hanson Don MacPherson with us today.

It'll be a very good story he'll tell and we'll also talk about his airplane, which is sitting right behind us over there, the Hellcat, which he became an Ace in.

(dramatic music) - On the way home, we just got started going home, we probably weren't over, or probably 1800 feet off the water and boy, all of a sudden I spotted it, two Val dive bombers coming out of somewhere converging course only they were low on the water.

And all I had time to do is just shove the nose down, put my sight on and squeeze.

And then I saw the pilot slump forward and he crashed into the ocean.

Well, then I wondered what happened to the other two, I mean in the other one.

And so I made a wing-over turn and it was headed toward this airfield.

And so I poured full throttle on the Hellcat and it responded wonderfully and just as I was squeezing the trigger, well my division major was hollering at me over the headphone and he said, "Get out of there, they're shooting at you "from the shore batteries, Don."

But I had squeezed the trigger and that one exploded.

And so I made a wing-over and some violent maneuvering to get out of there without getting shot down.

(upbeat music) - When we brought the Hellcat down to the address, were you excited?

What was your emotions?

- If I'd have been younger, I'd have danced the jig.

(all laughing) All right.

- He said if he was younger he would dance to the jig.

- You people just can't believe what all this has meant to me.

That beautiful airplane... Can I take it home with me?

(audience laughing) (upbeat music) (soft upbeat music) - [Narrator] "Postcards" is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by: Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Mark and Margaret Yigal Julene on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a Prairie setting near Windom, Minnesota.

On the web at shalomhillfarm.org.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a year-round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information at explorealex.com.

The Lake Region Arts Council's Arts Calendar, an arts and cultural heritage funded digital calendar showcasing upcoming art events and opportunities for artists in West Central Minnesota.

On the web at lrac4calendar.org.

Playing today's new music plus your favorite hits, 96.7 Kram, online at 967kram.com.

(upbeat music)