Cool Amanda

I blogged earlier about cousin Amanda winning a big essay contest. Here's some more info and the essay! You ROCK, Amanda!

Her mom writes: This was quite an honor She was a guest of honor at the Chuckwagon breakfast that included the governor and the mayor. Her essay was one of two that were selected out of 800 entries. She is such an amazing girl. This was the 39th essay contest. It was a great day! She received a $500 savings bond and $200 check from the artist Neil Patterson.



I like Charlie Russell Because ...I like Charlie Russell because he is an inspiration to me. He showed me that if I want to do something I could do it. Not only did he go to the West and do what he loved to do, his art, but also he successfully started a moneymaking business. I enjoy the way he loved, yet never hunted, animals. He drew pictures of buffalo being hunted and he never saw that. He just had heard it.

I was inspired by his will to go to the West, and when he was 16, his parents sent him on a trip there, and then he never permanently came back. That shows me to never forget what you want to do. Charlie grew up far different from me, yet Chaz, his parents called him, had the life I want. He got to spend the day doing what he always wanted to do. He married Nancy Cooper, and became a very successful artist, as I have already said. Charlie grew up to be what he had always wanted to, even though his dad wanted him to go to college and be in the family business.

So, eventually, he ended up a cowboy and creating over 2,000 paintings! Charlie’s paintings were unique to me. They were unique because he drew them with feeling. He drew what he has never seen before, and he became a very good friend to the Indians of the West. So he settled in Cascade with his wife, Nancy, and all of his Indian friends. The Indians told him of the buffalo hunts, and that put his imagina-tion to the test. The description of the buffalo’s eyes, and the way he drew the description and the fear in his eyes. I know what the buffalo is feeling because of that.

The paintings talk of him, his family and his family and his experiences. Right now, I live on 20 acres with one horse, and I go to parties all the time. Charlie showed me that no matter where you are, or where you live, you could change.