Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1936-03-21

A tan, bespectaeIed youth Ieaped
off a cattle train as it pulled into The
Chicago steekyarIls from Montana ii
wears AFRO, determined 20 make a
name for himself ia the field Of art.
He could have ridden to Chicago In
a Pullman and had financial assistance
from home to start his career If he
wished, but he had decided TO strike
out for himself and begin as most sue
cessful artists have done-p enniiess but
with quantities Of ambition.
The years that followed were ones Of
hard work and privatiOns. Many times
he became discouraged but never would
he concede defeat In his effort to at
tain the goal which he had set. The
road to success, he found, Was much
longer and obstaclestrewn than he had
first imagined.
From time to time he showed sample
sketches to Chicago art critics and
publishers but they offered him no en-
couragement Sometimes he wondered
If he Shouldn't have followed law as his
father had wished.
Wins Recognition
Then one day Charles Reynolds, man
aging editor Of Kiwanis magazine, saw
some Of the artists work. He liked it
and asked permission to use one Of
the drawings for the cover Of the june.
1888, issue. BY August landslide Of
work convinced the young man that
his work had at last been recognized
The youthful artist is Robert Bruce
Crippen, son of Mr.. and Mrs. II. c.
Crippen ST., of Billings. Now % years
old, Crippen's work, especially his west
ern drawings, have won him fine COM
ment from many sources.
The biography of this rising artist
dates from the days when he was at
tending a Billings kindergarten. Even
in that adoleScent stage, his work with
pencil and crayon was far superior to
the uninteligible scrawls Of the other
pupils.
Up through his boyhood he left his
artistry everywhere, his parents re-
call. In his books, on the back shed
wall, in the attic, in the cellar young
Crippen drew sketches. While other
were expressing desires to
be firemen and train conductors when
they grew up, Bruce decided on a ca
reer as a cartooniSt.
When the lad entered his early
teens he wanted to enroll in an art
course. But the course
involved considerable expense and his
father thought that the boy was too
young to assume such an undertak
ing.
But constant beggtngS finally con-
WINGED his father that there would be
no cessation of pleas until Bruce was
allowed to join the mail order" Federal
School of Cartooning.
Bruce was in the eighth grade when
he started the course and for the next
three years he willingly devoted many
hours each day with his art studies.
Criticisms of his work we're made, dur
ing those three years, by Charles L.
Bart" Bartholomew, noted eartoonist.
One Of the first public appearances
of any of Bruce'S cartOoning was dSlr-
ing a Billings Commercial club Drive,
when the young high school student
contributed several placards directing
attention to the aims and purposes of
the campaign.
His artistic ability advanced SO rap
idly that he was. chosen to do the art
work for the Billings high school year
book during his senior year. In high
school, too, he drew many dance and
play posters.
Drew for Yearbook
Matriculating to the University Of
Montana, Bruce majored a year in fine
arts and then decided to devote his
future education to the study of art.
It was then that he trekked across the
country on a cattle train and enrolled
at the Chicago Art institute.
Three years of study followed, en-
riched by q reasonably profitable MEM