Wolves in the Land of Liberty

Petre Wolfslavic, who lived for long enough to see disco and microwave ovens, told his great grandchildren this little story. "I was only 7 years old when my family left Czechoslovakia in 1900. Papa and Mama had a hard life working in the factories they told me and they didn't want the same for me. When they got the opportunity we fled the country and then passing through much of Europe until we were able to catch a ship heading west. After weeks of passing over the Atlantic Ocean Papa called out to Mama and me. We saw plenty of towers as we approached New York and soon Papa pointed out to the Statue of Liberty with tears in his eyes. He said, "There she is, the beautiful goddess freedom!" and we knew that we made it to the Land of Opportunity!"

I thought that it would be great to show how that this nation was founded by immigrants and that is what makes America a great melting pot. No one deserves to be here more than anyone else, so I just thought that this would be a good drawing and story for the 4th of July!

media: ink, markers, and color pencils on drawing paper

This Land is Your Land

After I made my 4th of July drawing, only a little more than a month and a half from this post, I recorded many patriotic songs on to my phone from Rhapsody and my favorite was "This Land is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie. 

I just love the song because it describes America in a beautiful way, it includes redwood forest, diamond deserts, fog lifting, and it is just so fun and inclusive. It's what America is supposed to be!

So in honor of this song, I decided to make a drawing about and how my bear, Rusty, is describing all of this to his friends. It's just a cute symbolic picture that describes some of the best physical elements of America.

It goes like this:

This land is your land, This land is my land,
From California to the New York island;
From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters;
This land was made for you and Me.

As I went a-walking that ribbon of highway
I saw above me that endless skyway
I saw below me that golden valley
This land was made for you and me.

I roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts;
All around me a voice was a-sounding;
This land was made for you and me.

(c) This Land is Your Land (song) by Woody Guthrie
(c) Artwork by Roger Adkins

4th of July Parade

I was thinking that there should be some fun picture that I could do to celebrate the coming of Independence Day, so I created a picture of a 4th of July parade using Lester, Walter, and Rusty marching along together in Paw Valley. I hope you like it!