"u4f900377-e8c0-567d-be8e-1096c09913f4">
COUNT THE WINGS
COUNT THE WINGS
the life and art of Charley Harper
Michelle Houts
BIOGRAPHIES FOR YOUNG READERS
Ohio University Press
Athens
Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701
© 2018 by Michelle Houts
All rights reserved
To obtain permission to quote, reprint, or otherwise reproduce or distribute material from Ohio University Press publications, please contact our rights and permissions department at (740) 593-1154 or (740) 593-4536 (fax).
Printed in the United States of America
Ohio University Press books are printed on acid-free paper
28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 5 4 3 2 1
Frontispiece: Charley Harper at home in his favorite working pants. Charley used his right leg to wipe his paintbrushes. Photo by Todd Oldham
Cover art: Mystery of the Missing Migrants. Courtesy of Charley Harper Art Studio
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Houts, Michelle, author.
Title: Count the wings : the life and art of Charley Harper / Michelle Houts.
Description: Athens, Ohio : Ohio University Press, 2018. | Series: Biographies for young readers | Includes bibliographical references. | Audience: Ages 8-13.
Identifiers: LCCN 20180004881 ISBN 9780821423073 (hardback) | ISBN 9780821423080 (pb) | ISBN 9780821446355 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Harper, Charley, 1922-2007—Juvenile literature. | Artists—United States—Biography—Juvenile literature.
Classification: LCC N6537.H3495 H68 2018 | DDC 700.92 [B]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018000488
Contents
3. The Artist Becomes a Soldier
5. A Country Boy in the Big City
6. Finding That Charley Harper Style
Author’s Note
(As Close as I’ll Ever Get to) A Day with Charley Harper
IT’S MIDMORNING AS I wind my way down a narrow lane to the Harper home and studio. It’s the very beginning of a journey, and I’m excited and a little bit nervous, too. I had heard of Charley Harper, the artist. I had seen his bold, bright artwork on everything from art gallery walls to T-shirts. I’d prepared for my visit, reading everything I could find about the man. Still, I’m feeling a little uncertain. Am I in the right place? And then it comes into view—the Harper home and studio, tucked away on five acres of wooded terrain in the middle of a midcentury Cincinnati neighborhood. I get out of my car as Charley and Edie Harper’s only son, Brett, emerges with a smile and a wave.
The home and studio, built in 1958, are separate structures designed to blend with each other and with the surrounding hillside and beech forest. A boardwalk and overhead wisteria vines create an outdoor corridor between two sets of sliding glass doors. I think about how that two-way path flows between the house and studio—how it connected Charley’s family life with his work.
The studio’s two current rooms sit in stark contrast to one another. The newer of the two, a 1999 addition, is bright white with modern shelving, framed art, and a large, open work area. Charley’s signature red cardinal and ladybug appear prominently here.
When I venture up a single step and through a narrow doorway, I feel as if I’ve stepped back in time. This, the original 1958 room, was Charley’s space and it’s filled—floor to ceiling—with books and magazines, file cabinets, and chests of drawers. Allowing just enough room for me to squeeze through, a narrow path leads to the back of the small room, where Charley’s desk sits, untouched since his death in 2007. On the desk, the blue and black paints, sketches, and reference books are evidence of Charley’s last painting, Scary Scenario. The National Geographic Book of Mammals lies open, and a swimming polar bear stares up at me as it once stared up at Charley.
Back in the other room, Brett and the Harper Studio’s archivist and curator, Chip Doyle, have arranged family photographs on a table for me to look at and scan into my computer. They’ve asked for
