Sandy and I made the pilgrimage to Charlottesville, Virginia in January of this year to attend the first Signature Event celebrating the 1803 beginning of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. I found the trip and the information regarding Thomas Jefferson to be extremely rewarding. If you have been studying the Lewis and Clark Expedition, you must take a close look at the life, philosophy, and teachings of Thomas Jefferson. 

I came away from Monticello, Charlottesville, and the University  of Virginia, the University Thomas Jefferson founded, with a new perspective of the Lewis and Clark journey and its meaning. The journey was a long and arduous voyage froth with dangers and physical tests that would kill 95% of the American population today. However, such journeys of equal or greater danger and peril have been attempted and successfully completed in the history of man. The danger and the hardship are major elements of the journey. However, in my opinion, not the predominate issues. 

The main reason that the Lewis and Clark Expedition was important to America may be stated as follows: The Lewis and Clark Expedition was The Vine that Grew from the Seeds of Freedom. The seeds were the ideas fostered by the founding fathers of this country and their foresight and efforts to build America and the American ideal of freedom. As we know, many of those ideals were shared by and came from the pen of Thomas Jefferson. Thus, those seeds came to be planted in the fertile mind that was Jefferson's garden. The strongest vine that grew from those seeded was in the personage of Meriwether Lewis. Jefferson took a personal interest in Lewis and became a mentor to the young man through his personal teachings. Jefferson, after becoming President, asked Lewis to be his personal secretary in the White House and began to provide him with the best training from  the best minds of the day in preparation to send Lewis on the famous journey that lasted more than three years. This journey produced   journals destined to be an endearing and most valuable record of the expedition, the geographic region of the West, the flora and fauna,  and the people of that land. But most importantly, the journey from Washington D.C. to the Pacific Ocean and back completed the growth of a new and strong vine that laced this country together for the first time. Lewis and Clark opened the West; thus, making the assets of the West available to a new and growing young country. 

My motive in producing the painting, LEWIS and CLARK: The Departure from the Wood River Encampment, May 14, 1804, was to depict a moment in time of significant importance to the development of the United States. The painting marks the formal entrance of the first official government representative to the West after it has become a possession of our country. This moment is important, in my opinion, because of the access to the enormous amounts of natural resources and the addition of a vast landmass to the current holdings east of the Mississippi River; thus, doubling the size of the United States at that time. Although the elusive Northwest Passage was found not to exist, the Lewis and Clark voyage clarified the scope and breadth of America; thus, their findings served as a giant step to unite the oceans of the Atlantic and Pacific for trade purposes. In my opinion, this moment also marks the beginning of the United States' ascension to the position of the leading world power it is today. The European countries were depleting many of their natural resources. The addition of the Louisiana Territory and later the lands extending to the Pacific Ocean, in addition to the original eastern half of the United States, provided vast wealths of wood. Used for the building of a new country, wood was one, if not the leading, natural resource of the nineteenth century. The vast forests of this country  provided the material for the building of all forms of transportation and the fuel to propel them not to mention the homes and infrastructure for a growing country. Coal and iron were also elements in abundance used in the mid to latter-half of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth to feed the needs of this nation. The United States had become a stand-alone empire. Its abundance of natural resources, the strong will of its people, and its strategic geographic location blessed with fertile soil and a receptive climate together with an isolated location in the world with room to grow and be protected from the  turmoil of the world. Due to these unique characteristics, the next two hundred years has allowed the United States to grow, bloom, and produce a bounty of overwhelming proportions. As we moved through the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century, we have developed a need for another natural resource not totally indigenous to our country, oil. The world is a smaller place today; and, we are not geographically protected any more. Planted and nurtured by Jefferson, The Vine that Grew from the Seeds of Freedom has grown through the generations of two hundred years into a tower of strength. May that wise, powerful, and vigilant vine continue to grow and protect us.

Future Lewis and Clark Paintings
I will continue to work with the subject of Lewis and Clark as part of my series Inland Waterways: The Highway of Our Heritage. Currently, I am working on some small paintings. However, in the early part of 2004, I will start another major work entitled: LEWIS and CLARK: The Vote, November 24, 1805. The painting will depict an interesting event during the voyage. All members of the Corps were allowed to vote on a location for the winter campsite to  be located at the mouth of the Columbia River. Sacajawea and York were given a vote. And, the vote was recorded by Lewis, an official representative of the United States Government. This would mark the first time a women/native American and an African-American were given the right to vote in this country. In preparation for the painting, I will be going to Ft. Clatsop in November to visit the November 24th campsite location to research the land, the elements and seascape at that time of the year. I think I will bring my new rain jacket.

The Captain's Gallery Auction
Another interest experiment I am conducting on our web site is an auction. At this time, we have auctioned several small original oil paintings. The response has been good. Please take the time to stop by the web site at www.garylucy.com to see the current work being auctioned. I hope to have a new piece at least every other month.

ReDiscovery 2003
By the time this publication reaches you, I will have spent six weeks on the Ohio River with the St. Charles Corps of Discovery retracing the 1803 path of Lewis and the men under his command from Elizabeth, Pennsylvania to Louisville, Kentucky. I will try to paint and sketch along the way including some on-location painting. The paintings and sketches as well as my daily journal I hope to keep and upload to the internet from my studio boat, the Custom Canvas Cruiser, will be on my web site  www.garylucy.com. Stop by and enjoy my visions of the journey.

Inland Waterways: The Highways of Our Heritage
September 2004 - January 2005
The time is drawing near. My twenty year retrospective show to be  exhibited with the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial at the    Old Courthouse Museum in St. Louis will be opening next year. Yes, I have been working for almost twenty years interpreting the history of the inland waterways. I have only scratched the surface. The subject of our river heritage has lifetimes worth of ideas for paintings. My objective, almost twenty years ago, was to open the show to correlate with the 200th Anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase. For more information on the show as we approach 2004, please go to our web site at: www.garylucy.com .