Montana Fly Rod & Creel
- 1890
Pen & Ink on Antique Map

Montana The Big Sky State
Montana has 97 mountain ranges, over 3,000 pristine lakes and numerous beautiful rivers, including the Yellowstone, the longest undammed river in the continental U.S. Montana has no official nickname, but unofficially “Big Sky” has become one. The “Big Sky'' in reference to Montana, was first coined by Pulitzer Prize-winning author A. B. Guthrie in his 1947 novel, The Big Sky. It epitomized the realistic depiction of untamed landscape. Since then, the image of Big Sky has been successfully branded into the mystic of Montana.
      I’ve combined my own creative perspectives of an antique map with my version of stippling. The background for this drawing of a wicker creel and fly rod is on a map of Montana, published in 1890, in a Mast, Crowell & Kirkpatrick Atlas.