From Haikus to Hatmaking by Montana author Brian D'Ambrosio
By Kristin Shaw
From hat makers to gun engravers, to welded metal artists, and singers...
In one year of working as a journalist, from June 2007 to June 2008, Brian D'Ambrosio, editor of the Clark Fork Journal and Inside the Garden City, had the opportunity to meet and spend time with but a few of the many eclectic personalities that make Big Sky Country so unique. During this period, he was first struck with the idea of gathering such stories – a diverse potpourri of subject matters and materials – and placing some of the most interesting ones all in the very same book. He writes "that with each story, I learned something truly special or intriguing about the person being profiled, as well as discovered something new about myself."
This is a great book. Each passage in this book reveals new elements of human possibility.
I find the substance and content strong, fresh, and conveying a genuine sense of the state of mind, ideology, and inimitable character of modern Western Montana life. Indeed, this corner of the world, writes D'Ambrosio, is a perfect place for one to be if they wish to forget it all in the meditation of ungoverned and carefree nature. "Integrate the isolated woods and the expansive recreational opportunities, and it's not difficult to see why so many people (myself included), smitten with romantic visions, gravitate to this sliver of the state".
My favories stories are of totem pole carver George Gulli and singer David Boone. The book includes Rudy Autio's final interview. The articles are fresh and crisp, the writing style lucid and engaging, the photos are quite complimentary as well. The stories are all quite engaging. For example, there is a good piece about Jimmy "The Hat Man" Harrison of Darby:
"From a splendid little building, arranged so the public can stand on a mezzanine and watch the actual hat-making process in unbroken sequence, Harrison's hands impart the kind of proficiency and dexterity only acquired or developed through years of training and experience. Since his youth, wondrously wrought Western head coverings so fascinated him that he wanted to create them on his own – and this ambition has been unflaggingly fulfilled."
Here's another great lead from an article about a "street photographer":
At once resolutely bleak and magnanimously lyrical, halfway between a slap and an embrace, Richard Paup's black-and-white photographs create ambivalent, suspended moods that resist clear reading. Taken between 1968 and 2008, his artistic contributions are part of a genre often labeled "street photography."
The articles range from 800-1,200 words and the book is 200 pages. I've enjoyed following D'Ambrosio's articles in Montana newspapers and magazines, and I am sure that fans of his work will enjoy this compendium and collection. http://www.lulu.com/product/file-download/from-haikus-to-hatmaking-one-year-in-the-life-of-western-montana/3488698
The following stories are included:
John Well-Off-Man: Multimedia Artist; David Boone: Obsessive Art of Songwriting
Mike Bader: Blues Scholar Immersed in Subject
Rich Adams: Graphite Pencil Artist
Lee Kierig: The Merry Man and His Mighty Machines
Rudy Autio: Master Ceramicist
George Gulli: Totemic Art
Richard Paup: Street Photographer
Skip Horner: Adventure Guide
Josh Smith: Knife Maker
George Ybarra: Alloy Artist
Greg Pape: Montana Poet Laureate
Teller Wildlife Refuge; Steve Wilson: Art as Life
Jimmy "The Hat Man" Harrison; Jim Agnew; Guy Bingham;
Carl Haywood: Tracking David Thompson
Bill Whitfield: Ghost Towns and Gold Camps
Lemuel Oehrtman: Blacksmith
Mike Gouse: Gun Engraver
Larry Townsend: The Cowboy Way
Aaron Crowder: Hope in Haiti; Carl Bock: Dances with Wolves;
Andrew Maisel: Mission Mountain Joinery; Masculinity Column
Whatever Happened to Prolific Vocabulary?
Grumbling on the Ice at Georgetown Lake
Sean Kochel: Kochel Apiaries
John Walker Guitars
Ram Murphy: Seizing the Subcontinent
From hat makers to gun engravers, to welded metal artists, and singers...
In one year of working as a journalist, from June 2007 to June 2008, Brian D'Ambrosio, editor of the Clark Fork Journal and Inside the Garden City, had the opportunity to meet and spend time with but a few of the many eclectic personalities that make Big Sky Country so unique. During this period, he was first struck with the idea of gathering such stories – a diverse potpourri of subject matters and materials – and placing some of the most interesting ones all in the very same book. He writes "that with each story, I learned something truly special or intriguing about the person being profiled, as well as discovered something new about myself."
This is a great book. Each passage in this book reveals new elements of human possibility.
I find the substance and content strong, fresh, and conveying a genuine sense of the state of mind, ideology, and inimitable character of modern Western Montana life. Indeed, this corner of the world, writes D'Ambrosio, is a perfect place for one to be if they wish to forget it all in the meditation of ungoverned and carefree nature. "Integrate the isolated woods and the expansive recreational opportunities, and it's not difficult to see why so many people (myself included), smitten with romantic visions, gravitate to this sliver of the state".
My favories stories are of totem pole carver George Gulli and singer David Boone. The book includes Rudy Autio's final interview. The articles are fresh and crisp, the writing style lucid and engaging, the photos are quite complimentary as well. The stories are all quite engaging. For example, there is a good piece about Jimmy "The Hat Man" Harrison of Darby:
"From a splendid little building, arranged so the public can stand on a mezzanine and watch the actual hat-making process in unbroken sequence, Harrison's hands impart the kind of proficiency and dexterity only acquired or developed through years of training and experience. Since his youth, wondrously wrought Western head coverings so fascinated him that he wanted to create them on his own – and this ambition has been unflaggingly fulfilled."
Here's another great lead from an article about a "street photographer":
At once resolutely bleak and magnanimously lyrical, halfway between a slap and an embrace, Richard Paup's black-and-white photographs create ambivalent, suspended moods that resist clear reading. Taken between 1968 and 2008, his artistic contributions are part of a genre often labeled "street photography."
The articles range from 800-1,200 words and the book is 200 pages. I've enjoyed following D'Ambrosio's articles in Montana newspapers and magazines, and I am sure that fans of his work will enjoy this compendium and collection. http://www.lulu.com/product/file-download/from-haikus-to-hatmaking-one-year-in-the-life-of-western-montana/3488698
The following stories are included:
John Well-Off-Man: Multimedia Artist; David Boone: Obsessive Art of Songwriting
Mike Bader: Blues Scholar Immersed in Subject
Rich Adams: Graphite Pencil Artist
Lee Kierig: The Merry Man and His Mighty Machines
Rudy Autio: Master Ceramicist
George Gulli: Totemic Art
Richard Paup: Street Photographer
Skip Horner: Adventure Guide
Josh Smith: Knife Maker
George Ybarra: Alloy Artist
Greg Pape: Montana Poet Laureate
Teller Wildlife Refuge; Steve Wilson: Art as Life
Jimmy "The Hat Man" Harrison; Jim Agnew; Guy Bingham;
Carl Haywood: Tracking David Thompson
Bill Whitfield: Ghost Towns and Gold Camps
Lemuel Oehrtman: Blacksmith
Mike Gouse: Gun Engraver
Larry Townsend: The Cowboy Way
Aaron Crowder: Hope in Haiti; Carl Bock: Dances with Wolves;
Andrew Maisel: Mission Mountain Joinery; Masculinity Column
Whatever Happened to Prolific Vocabulary?
Grumbling on the Ice at Georgetown Lake
Sean Kochel: Kochel Apiaries
John Walker Guitars
Ram Murphy: Seizing the Subcontinent