Herman Wrede was a friend of mine. I met him at Chamber Mixer I co-hosted with the YMCA many moons ago, and we instantly bonded. We’d meet often for a cup of coffee and talk about art, poetry and life.
Herman passed three years ago. I didn’t expect to have a tough time talking about him, but as I started to compose this piece, I found that emotion took over and the words wouldn’t come.
Fortunately I remembered Kollin Kosmicki’s Free Lance article about Herman. It touched me then and still does today. I feel it gives the reader a good sense of Herman.
Why two paintings of Herman? I just loved his face. There was so much character and history in each line.
These paintings are larger than life, but not larger than Herman’s life, no, not at all.
I was lucky to call him friend.
Image Credits
All Images Are © Shannon Grissom
Shannon Grissom Artist Bio
Shannon Grissom has been called the Sock Monkey Lady. Maybe that’s because Shannon has a line of Sock Monkey golf club headcovers that are carried on tour by six LPGA pros. But that’s only one color in her crayon box, and Shannon likes to create with them all. The rest of the time, Shannon is an artist, television producer/host, songwriter, author and goofball who carries her camera with her everywhere she goes.
Blog / Website: http://shannongrissom.info
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