Tuesday, November 27, 2007

The Backwoods World of Norman F. Pettingill




Just finding out about this artist, who did a series of incredible black and white ink postcards in the early 1950s. I understand that the Kohler Center has a collection of original pen and ink drawings in their collection. Anxious to learn more...

23 comments:

losfeld said...

Some more in Robert Crumb's Weirdo #2 it seems... I got to find this one! Thanx for this great find of an amazing artist!

Joey said...

I have to get Weirdo #2 too so I can read that article. There's an interesting page by Rodney Schroeter that offers prints by Pettingill:

http://my.execpc.com/~rschroet/nfp/prints.html

I have since acquired a number of Pettingill vintage postcards. I think they're incredible! Glad you think so too!

losfeld said...

Nice link thank you! Any chance to see the postcards you're talking about?

Joey said...

Yes, once I have a bit of time, I'll scan the additional postcards and we can have a running archive of his pieces!

losfeld said...

great, thanks!

pgill relative said...

Yup, Grandpa Norman was a pretty unique artist and individual....what you have is simply a fraction of the thousands of pieces he did....he was quite a character! Kohlers will be exhibiting his work again and we can hardly wait....even the family doesn't have what Kohlers have in their collection but a blessing they have it to perserve his legacy...hope you can go see it when they set it up again....they rotate their display's so we aren't sure when it comes up again...fun to hear other's comments about Grandpa...we as grandkids thought all grandpa's were as goofy as ours but he was way cool....more than we realized.

Joey said...

Wow, it's awesome to get a post from an actual relative. I'm sure you have some great memories of your grandfather. I really hope that there will some day be a major monograph created to properly document all of your grandfather's work. It would be a shame if it's only relegated to a few aficianados. BTW: If you ever want to sell any original drawings, I'm sure you'd have a few collectors on this blog that would love a shot at them. Thanks for the comment!

june said...

I have a collection of about 50 Pettingill post cards. I collected them in the mid 50's and 60's. I have some that were personaly signed by the artist for me.

Anonymous said...

I have a collection of about 50 of the artists post cards. I collected them in the 50's and 60's. I have a few that he signed especially for me.

Joey said...

Wow, that is SO cool June! You should post these to a Flickr account so we can all see. I believe there's going to be a book published next year by Fantagraphics. Can't wait until it's done!

june said...

THanks for you comments Joey. I am new to using the internet. Soon I might post pictures of my collection.

Joey said...

Well Welcome!

I'm glad you discovered blogs, because there's a wealth of information and great people and ideas out there. I'm sure you know of these other things, but I thought I might list them anyways for you to check out in case you don't:

1. eBay: Still a great place to find almost anything.

2. Pandora.com: a great place for discovering new music. Their engine learns from the songs you like or dislike and goes out and finds music that you might like. Pretty cool.

3. YouTube: another obvious one. Awesome for old clips.

4. Facebook: a neat way to keep up with old friends.

Hope you let me know when you post your collection!

Joey.

june said...

I have a few duplicates for some reason.I might donate them to the Kohler
Collection.

Joey said...

Ha, donate them to me! Do you have any original drawings? Would love to see those...

The Kohler Collection is great.

june said...

I will have to look at what I have. I don't even know what these things are worth. The signed ones might be original, I would have to check. I wasn't concerned about them until I saw this blog. They are all in a large pair of photo albums with plastic sheets. i don't know the condition at this point. I was cleaning a closet out and found them in there. I hadn't thought about them for years. By the way I am 62 years young.

Joey said...

Well, I've collected only a few of them (I have 12), but I can tell you that they usually go on eBay for anywhere between $5.00 - $25.00 each. I really don't know the rhyme or reason as to why some go for more than others. I think it just may be who is watching the auction at the time.

If you ever decide to sell any, please let me know.

Thanks!

june said...

Thanks for the info. I will keep you in mind if I do decide to sell.

june said...

Thanks for the information. I will keep you in mind if I ever decide to sell.

Anonymous said...

I was searching for some of these, I have a few postcards my dad sent to my mom in the early '50s when he was wrestling around Northern WI.

Norman's son was my art teacher in Spooner high school, he was a great teacher and really cool guy.

Joey said...

Very cool! Look out for the book on Pettingill to come out by Fantagraphics.

Anonymous said...

Hey Joey,
Was dong a search for Pettingill and came across your blog. My dad found a huge collection of unused vintage post cards by Pettingill in a box he got at a estate sale. I just put some up on e-bay and still have dups i did not put up yet. Just seeing if you were still collecting them, and if they were diffrent from what you had.

Anonymous said...

I have four post cards, very large, dated 1948. The Bare Hunter. Screwie Hughie From Hoot Owl Holler. Moran Gulch Night Club, and also Saturday Night at Louies dated 1950. All copyrighted. My USAF uncle gave them to me when I was in high school in 1950. I would not trade them for anything. Thank you all for giving me information about this wonderful and clever artist. Dan McKinnon Themckinnons@aol.com

Joey said...

No problem Dan! Also, make sure to check out the major monograph that was put out about a year ago on Pettingill. It should be available on Amazon and it's definitely worth getting! Thanks!