Jake and I had the pleasure of sitting down with Scott Hale late last week, a very talented local painter of landscapes and things piscatorial. That’s one of Scott’s pieces above, and one from AD Maddox below.
Scott (who in the interest of full disclosure neither of us had ever met before last week) had emailed us earlier in the week about a new project that he’s launched named ArtCreel.
Our meeting was a perfect picture of one of the things that I love most about fly fishing – fly fishing has afforded me the chance to meet some amazing folks along the way; folks who not only love the sport but have nifty interests and skills to share.
Scott and his impressive team of artists are a great example of that point.
We’re very much into collaborative web- based projects that bring nifty things to the fly fishing world, and Scott has been the vision behind the creation of ArtCreel. The roster of artists comprising the ArtCreel team is a damned impressive one – Al Barnes, Peter Corbin, Derek DeYoung, Jeff Kennedy, John Koch, AD Maddox and Joseph Tomelleri. They have a thoughtful set of bios up on the ArtCreel site.
Here’s a teaser of ArtCreel’s history –
Back in the summer of 1996, two new friends took off from work early on a Friday afternoon to backpack to a lake in the Cascades for the weekend. Once camp was set up next to the lake, Friend 1 pulled out his spinning gear complete with treble hook spoon and began fishing. Friend 2 carefully set up his fly fishing gear and began “fishing” as well. Friend 1 snickered at the elaborate casting motions and laborious retrieves of Friend 2. He thought he had never seen anything quite so unnecessary . He laughed out loud and the echo bounced many times off the glacial cirque that formed the lake. Friend 2 said, “I’ll have you fly fishing in no time.” Friend 1 was quite sure he would never give up his easy daredevil ways.
Within a year, amazed by the possibility of pinpoint casts with a fly (it reminded him a little of being back on the pitcher’s mound) and the stillness and rhythm of a sport that was growing on him, Friend 1 had almost completely abandoned his spinning rig in favor of an “economical” fly rod from Fred Meyer and noisy click-pawl reel.
Seven years after that first trip to the Cascades, Friend 1 decided to hang up the 9 to 5 gig and become an artist. Though he loved the Cascades, he found himself longing for better trout rivers he had flirted with on trips to Montana. Getting the green light from his incredible wife, they made their move in the name of painting the landscape, and said goodbye to Seattle’s 1 1/2 hour daily commute forever. That there happened to be some fine flywater all around was just ‘coincidence’. And besides, it was really all Friend 2’s fault anyway that an addiction had formed and now needed to be fed frequently by the many moving waters around the Gallatin valley.
In time, aside from painting Rocky Mountain landscapes, he began painting a few trout; an angler here and there…and eventually the idea for ArtCreel was born…
We’re not getting anything from ArtCreel to give this shout out today (I even bought the coffee the other morning) – we’re pleased to bring you notice of this nifty team of talented folks, and we like to work with good people from our rather fishy neighborhood.
Even better, here’s a money-saving exclusive for ChiWulff readers – Now through November 12th Scott has graciously offered 10% off the total of any order from ArtCreel. Just type in the code chiwulff at the checkout and hit recalculate to receive the discount.
Santa just left you your first gift of the holiday season.
Ho Ho Ho.
