50 Artists Magazine December 2019
as in national museums and private
collections, such as that of the Petrucci
Foundation. What I knew was that
the mine-related horrors faded when
I saw the little pictures Knox tacked
up several times a day. He did them
in between his official assignments of
designing charts, creating illustrations
and laying out a monthly magazine.A Friend
During my days at MSHA, I was
also studying drawing at night, soI wanted to meet the two artists
across the hall, thinking we might
have things in common. One
artist, middle-aged and dressed
in a three-piece suit, just stared
after I’d introduced myself, as if
I were a miscreant. The other artist
presented a stark contrast: A heavy-
set man with a beret atop his head,
he greeted me with, “I’m Cole. Glad to
meet you. Where are you from?”
“Cole” (Columbus) and I became
friends. He was a knowledgeable
and sensitive man, yet relaxed andamiable, and I loved chatting with
him about art. I learned that he’d
been a scholarship student at the
Philadelphia Museum School of
Industrial Arts, that he’d entered
government work after losing his
graphic-arts business in a fire and
that he considered his government
job his “stake” for his future. I vied
with other workers to buy his paint-
ings right off the walls of his office.
He laughed at us: “People are getting
greedy. I have to say, you can’t have
this one. You already bought one.”LEFT
Oyster Fisherman
acrylic on linen
29 ½ x23½OPPOSITE
Beneath His Feet
acrylic on linen,
60x42