‘Ziggy Does Good Work’
Barn Painter Earns
This Farmer’s Praise
By JACK W. HOFFMAN
“Well, this young man comes up to the house one
day, and he asks, ‘Can I paint a picture on your barn?’
“How do Isay this. well, you know, he had tong
hair, and for goodness sakes I don’t really know what
he’s going to do to my barn. Now I’d say yes In a
minute, but then, frankly,! was a little worried. But
one thing ted to another, and, well.
And, well, today farmer Cornell Dexter has a
giant Bicentennial portrait of Paul Revere gracing the
barn on his centennial farm alongside US-fl north of
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In This Section
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Hartland.
Tb~19fl~rgus,/En
LYON
HERALD
It’s a beauty.. and it’s the work of an artist who
has been described as the “Phantom Painter” of
Southeastern Michigan. More than a half dozen of his
giant paintings have “mysteriously” turned up on
barns In the northwest metropolitan area.
Thousands upon thousands of motorists have
“But out he comes, bringing his buckets of paint
admired his work in Farmlngton; in Novi, and now
and his brushes and stuff. He ‘gridded’ the barn. you
over near Hartland- But little has been known of the
know, he marked it off in sections.. used chalk, I
artist.
think. He also had this small painting of the original
“He don’t want to be known, so I can’t give his
~redThatwarhtcOuM~
name to you,” Mid Dexter, whose fam1irharowned~ paintit to.scale.!~
----Thelarmwherthelives
more ~
Farmer Dexter wanted the jillit to~pafnflMgives a nickname, ‘Ziggy Grabowskl’,” insisted the
entire painting as originally done by Singleton Copley
farmer protecting the anonymity of the artist. “Don’t
during the American Revolution. “Paul Revere was
ask me why. Re’s a very talented young man, who
seated at a table, and I tried to get him to put In the
really knows his stuff.”
whole thing. But he insisted on using only the waist up.
Dexter says numerous motorists slop at his house
Said the painting would be too small to be seen from
to inquire about the artist, but about all he can do is
the highway if he painted the whole thing.
agree that “Ziggy” does good work.
“He was going along fine, but then his girlfriend
“It didn’t cost met cent,” says the farmer. “He
came out and that kind of slowed him down. He took
painted it for nothing, just like he painted the one down
longer than normal on this one. I think he said about a
the road a piece on the Wakeman (Robert) place. I
week to 10 days was what it was most times to do a
think he got a government grant or something.”
painting like this.”
Warming up to his story, Dexter describes what
Dexter said he and his neighbor, Wakeman, are
happened when the artist showed up at his house last
tickled
with the end result. They cause “no end of
summer:
comment,” most of it complimentary. He’s a little
“He wanted to paint this picture by some fellow I
sorry now that he was apprehensive at the outset.
neverheardof. .spells his name, ‘R-a-p-h-a-e-l’. Wait
“I just didn’t know what I was getting Into. let’s
a minute, I’ve goUt written down someplacesay
you didn’t know anything about this ‘hippy’
“Here’s what it is called- I’ll have to spell It:
looking kid and he shows up at your place to paint
‘Baldassare Castiglione’. I don’t know much about
something. How would you act?”
art and that name didn’t mean much to me. It didn’t
Although he watched those first brush strokes
sound too good, either- So I told him no, I wanted
very
carefully, looking for anything that might be the
something else If h. Insisted on painting something.
Art stages of a naked woman or something,. “after
Then he suggeste4 Pal ttev*e. Well, I know about
awhile I didn’t worry anymore. He’s a good young
him so I said, awe, go ahead
man, and he really knows his stuff,” beams farmer
“1 don’t mind telling you I was still a little
Dexter.
worried.
Baldassare Castiglione by Raphael’
.
Early
____
t
Blooms
Are In
st KAThY COPLEY
Plant
breeders
are
constantly frying to improve
plant strains by developing
hybrkl containing the most
desirable features of stveral
sbaiis of a particular plant.
The
advances
most
significant to home gardeners
are those which make a plant
blown or set fruit earlier,
grow to a more manageable
size, reaistant to pests or
fungus Infections, and
protcers of larger flowers or
EMIy blooms rnIkëniorè
difference in a vegetable
garto than they doin a
flower garden. Most plants
which are early to set fruit
(the term Is used loosely to
represent all fruit or
vegetables)
are
often
conveniently labeled Early or
Extra Early as part of their
name. Whether or not this is
the case, there is a way to
know the earlies from the
lates.
A seed packet or catalog
generally gives the days to
maturity. This number
indicates the mimber of days
required from germination to
fruit bearing If the seed is
planS outside in thoroughly
warmedscil. An early start on
a window sill shortens the
outdoor period required for
maturity but one day inside
doesn’t
give
growth
equivalent to one day outside.
In Michigan’s
short
summers,
early-bearing
vegetables are a good idea.
Here are some of the best and
earliest:
Broccoli: Premium Crop;
Cabbage: Earliana. Early
Jersey
Wakefield;
Cauliflower: Snow King,
Early Snowball; Corn: Early
Xfra Sweet, Early Sunglo’w,
Early Golden Giant, Hybrid
Early Giant; Cucumbers:
Early Hycrop; Eggplant:
Early Beauty; Lettuce: Early
Prizehead;
Melons:
Muskmelon Early Classic.
Early Crenshaw Melon, New
Hampshire Midget; Peas:
Burpeeana Early, Early
Frosty, Alaska, Little
Marvel; Pepper: Early
Pimento Pepper; Tomato:
Bin-pee Big Early Hybrid,
Early Girl, Pixie Hybrid,
Sunnybrook Earliana,
Erliset,
Other breeding work has
concentrated on controlling
size. Dwarf plants which yield
full-sized fruit are a real asset
to small gardens, window
boxes, and patio tubs. In other
case, the plant may be fullsized but the fruit is
~‘
(
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Continued on Page 3-8
~,.ciiI
Setiction “Primitives”
.kjfl Arrived
• ~ntIqueSC
•CoIIectIbIeSS
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)
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Downstairs In Green’s
~O1N. Center
J. SadaIutZ. Prop.
Consignments Welcome
- -
Meet the ‘Phantom Painter’
The “Phantom Painter’’ of Southeastern
Michigan doesn’t wear a mask. He doesn’t even paint
barns at night.
Paul Revere by John Singleton Copley
He’s an honest.to-goodness artist, a straightshooter who simply spurns publicity as he goes about
the countryside repe~oduclngMaster paintings on the
gable endof barns.
“I don’t know why.. .1 just enjoy painting them,”
explained Douglas Tyler this past week when The
Sliger Home Newspapers caught up with him.
Presently a graduate student In the print-making
department of Cranbrook’s Academy of Arts, the 26year-old artist who lives in Royal Oak but who was
contacted through his parents’ home In Hartland, Mid
he began painting barns about sIx years ago.
“My first one was the Mona Lisa near
Farnilngton. The barn has since burned down, I’ve
done about eight or nine others. The two on US-23 are
the last ones I did.”
He paints only during the summertime when he’s
either not in school or not teaching. For a couple of
years, following receipt of his master’s degree in arts
history from MSU, he was an art instructor at a small
college in Virginia
Madison- College in
Harrisonburg.
He’s not married ..“not yet.”
His first Master barn paintings “came out of my
own pocket. It wasn’t easy, either, because school gets
pretty expensive. After I got a job It was easier. Later,
I got a federal grant
that’s how I financed the
painting of those barns on US-fl. It was a grant from
the National Endowment for the Arts. Now that’s run
out. .but I’ll probably paint again next summer if I
can scrape up the money.”
Tyler uses a photo of the original paintings. It’s
Continued on Page 3-8
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.
Park Schedules
Guided Walks
A Sunday morning guided
nature hike for the general
~iblicalong the nature trails
at Kensington Metropark
near New Huthon will be held
on Sunday, February 22 at 9
am.
Persons should met at the
Nature Center Building.
Naturalist-led walks are
also scheduled for these
Sunday mornings: March 14
and2satetm.; April 11 and
25 at 8 am. and May 9 and 23
at S am. For details phone
Kensington Mefropark 6851561
(Milford).
r
MORTGAGE
FINANCING
For
Information Coil
(517) 546-3610
—
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Come in and talk over
your requirements with one of our
LOAN SPECIALISTS.
They have the know-how to process
your loon quickly and efficiently.
Donald W. Smith
129W. Lake
SOUTH LYON 437~2Q~9
PINCKNEY —979-3127
HARTLAND 632-7495
FOWLERVILLE- (517) 223-9163
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AND 10*14 ASSOCiATION OF LiVINGSTON C%I TV
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