Artist's Christmas ornaments on sale this week

FORT SCOTT, Kan. -- An award-winning artist will have ornaments he created for sale during a downtown open house from 5-8 p.m., Dec. 20. Proceeds from the sale of Gary Hawk's work will go to Friends of Fort Scott National Historic Site.

The purpose of Friends of the Fort is to support and enhance FSNHS's interpretation of the military post's role on the American frontier from 1842-1873.

Hawk's work has won praise from religious leaders and actors to governors and presidents. In 2007, his one-of-a-kind ornament picturing a courier on one side and officers' row on the other was displayed on the White House Christmas tree in the Blue Room. The ornament was among 391 representing the nation's 391 National Park Service sites.

"I took my wife and three daughters with me," Hawk said. "We had a wonderful time. They had a wonderful reception for the artists."

"... When I got home, I got a plaque from Department of the Interior. It was a fantastic thing to be selected to do the painting," Hawk recalled, adding, "I was a nervous wreck. I work in watercolor. The ornaments were slick and shiny, so I had to get watercolor to stick to them."

He said he made a special rig that would allow him to keep his hand level.

Hawk was born during the Dust Bowl on a farm near Hennessey, Okla., his Web site said. His parents bought a farm in Kansas in 1939 and moved there in 1940. In 1942, they lost everything in a tornado and afterward lived in an old shack with cloth window shades.

He discovered he wanted to paint the window shades. Hawk studied at Kansas State University and the Kansas City Art Institute. He was employed by Hallmark Cards and American Greeting Card Corp. He also worked as a designer for IMP Boats, but left the boat business to devote his time to his art career, the Web site said.

"I just kept pursuing it and pursuing it," Hawk said.

In 1976, he saw a story in an airline magazine about an artist who sold his work for $15,000-$20,000. "I looked at his art," Hawk said, and decided, "that's what I want to do."

He came home and told his wife, Beverly, he was going to make a living at painting and he's never looked back.

The Hawks have three daughters, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Beverly keeps the books while Hawk, who will be 79 on Christmas Eve, travels. He often speaks to youngsters about pursuing their goals. "I never got rich, but rich is many things as far as I'm concerned. I'm doing what I want to do ... ," Hawk said.