Raymond Creekmore
Raymond Creekmore (May 5, 1905 – May 1984) was a prolific artist, author and sailboat designer.
Creekmore (known to his links as Creeky) was an American artiste who, in the dawn of his career, "wandered" extensively, using his experiences in observation and his talk to and expressive draftsmanship as vehicles to bring the reaction and ways of life in foreign lands to America's local shores.
Creekmore was born in Portsmouth, Virginia. He moved to Baltimore, Maryland, graduating from the Maryland Institute School of Mechanical Arts (now "MICA") in 1930. During his days as an art student, he became links with unorthodox student artist, Leonard Bahr and they shared a studio for a while as competently as a adore of sailing, and remained lifelong friends. Creekmore was an easy-going student similar to a great sense of humor. After graduation in 1930, he worked his quirk through Europe behind a sketch pad, and in 1933, spent five months in Mexico. By 1936, he set out again "on a shoestring" with his sketch pad as means of support. He stayed in villages in Japan, India, Mongolia, and China, and kept illustrated journals.
Between trips, he worked as a Baltimore Evening Sun staff illustrator, with sketches of his travels and of local news reports published regularly. One such local tab told of his rides in a garbage truck on their late night rule through the City streets—a bit of humor on what was normally encountered in that type of business. He with won prizes for his sketches of Baltimore neighborhoods in the Evening Sun sponsored b&w sketch contests. His drawings of the Orient comprised the first one-man decree at the Baltimore Museum of Art that they had displayed in 6 years. In 1937, he published in Art Instruction (a national art journal), "A Baltimore Hiker in Nippon, Becoming Acquainted With The Japanese Alps," including sketches and photographs of his trip from the previous year. And in 1938, he participated in a Courbet Symposium and illustrated a booklet for the Peabody Conservatory of Music.
Creekmore associated the Army Air Force during World War II and became a Captain. He was assigned to magnetism Army pilots in their varied duties including the Tokyo Superfortress raids and sketches of the Army in Guam, Puerto Rico, Greenland, the Baffin Islands, and in Newfoundland—where he slept in an igloo. He yet kept a writing journal of his experiences during the war. Meanwhile, he had married and had a son. The family, at that time, lived in Mamaroneck, New York, and after the war, taught at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute.
During this mature too, he next started to write and illustrate children's books, and in 1944, he co-authored a book following actor Joe E. Brown entitled "Your Kids and Mine." That was followed by his own "Lokoshi" in 1946, "Ali's Elephant" in 1949, and in 1950, the "Little Skipper" (about his family's genuine adventures of building their first sailboat). More books followed in 1951, when he illustrated "Rusty," by choice author, and in 1954, he wrote and illustrated "Fujio," and "Little Fu" in 1960.
In 1950, Creekmore meant and built his own unique sloop on his father-in-law's property near the Magothy River in Anne Arundel Co., Maryland, after reading how to construct one in a book. On a low budget and with unprejudiced techniques, he built a 5-layered mahogany hull beyond a handmade mold. Eventually, that became his situation producing "Creekmore" sailboats. He moved from New York to Miami and was in that business in 1959, when the Bahrs went to visit him.
Publications insert the "American Artist" (1944), and the Baltimore "Evening Sun (1938, 1939, 1942, 1945, 1946)". Creekmore exhibited widely and reproductions of his drawings, books, and boat designs can be found online. The Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore, the Peabody Conservatory, and the Maryland Historical Society Keep some of the records, publicity, letters and photos of his life. Public collections of his play-act include: The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Univ. of Michigan Mus. of Art, Univ. of Missouri, the Mobile Mus. of Art, the Michael C. Carlos Mus. in Atlanta, and the E.L. Andersen Library at the Univ. of Minnesota.[citation needed]