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| Civil War Lincoln |
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| A Serious Lincoln: Burdened by His Calling |
As a painter, it's well known I am fascinated with faces, and especially interesting faces. Whereas most Dylan fans are followers of his music and writings, I have found his face itself of endless interest. In part, he has permitted so many thousands of photos to be taken from his youth to the present, with light refracted and reflected from every possible angle so as to reveal the sculpted cheekbones, deepening furrows and such, so the face is always new, ever revealing and concealing.
It's too bad Abe Lincoln pre-existed the camera. Presidents get their share of photos taken today, but old Abe was an early candidate for that, back in a day when you were instructed not to move, hold still, and it would appear, "Be grave."
The real Abe Lincoln was actually a great storyteller and not the humorless mask we see captured in Matthew Brady's photos.
It would have been interesting to have a catalog of early Lincoln photos, to watch the progression as time and responsibility etched his appearance. But we don't.
Here are some of the paintings I produced over the years of our 16th president. You may call a few disrespectful, but I'd like to believe that in light of his sense of humor he just might get a kick out of them.
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| Blue Lincoln with Sunblock |
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| Lincoln in Black & White |
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| Candidate Lincoln in Pen & Ink |
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Lincoln with Impish Smile
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| Sunday Funnies Cartoon Lincoln |
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| Lincoln Just Being Lincoln |
"You can never escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today."--Abe Lincoln
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