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I was surprised and thrilled at Fran’s gesture to thank me with these two Shoofly greeting cards.

Shoofly, You Can Bother Me Any Time!

It’s a busy season here at the Cowboy Publishing Group offices in Fort Worth, Texas. At Quarter Horse News we’re busy with Futurity season coverage and year-end marketing pushes. It’s been more than a few weeks since I’ve been able to continue my year-long journey through the art here in the office, but something lovely came to me a few weeks and I thought I’d share.

Fran Smith is the book editor for Western Horseman books; she’s been with Western Horseman for a long time. Along with being a valued editor, she’s our resident storyteller and, for me, has been a valuable historian and all-around great lady. She’s helped me a few times now with research for my art blogs. Well, a couple of weeks ago she came tapping on my shoulder asking me for some help with the task of collecting pedigree information the new Western Horseman Legends 9 book. I was glad to return the favor. It was pretty simple from my end. I already had a template document for inputting pedigree info and was able to convert it to a fillable form PDF. It worked great! Fran was grateful and thanked me many times over and I was happy to help. Doing extra little projects like this helps keep my skills in check and I consider them just part of my job.

A few days later, Fran caught me in the hallway and invited me to her office, where she gifted me with two gorgeous Shoofly greeting cards. I was so surprised! I told her she really didn’t have to, I was just returning her favors, but she insisted I have them. She knows I am a cattle person, and my Shoofly cards have cattle on them. They’re wonderful! I was very happy to receive such a thoughtful surprise.

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Detail of one of the greeting cards gifted to me from Fran. Realism, you had me at forehead swirl and eyelashes.
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Not only are the two cards hand signed by Shoofly, but they have the Shoofly stamp signature as well. Little touches like these are just classy, and this one is adorable, as well.

Fran’s told me about Shoofly before and I’ve had him on my list to blog about but just haven’t gotten to it until now. Fran also shared with me an interview article she wrote for Western Horseman in 2007, all about Robert “Shoofly” Shufelt. He’s a well-known and gifted Western artist. He works exclusively in graphite (pencil). The detail of his work is masterful. I’ve always been envious of artists who have such talent. I can draw, but not like Shoofly that’s for sure. I appreciate his outlook on not wasting one’s talent. No doubt many of you know more about him than I could ever tell you. So I’ll just share the link to his website http://www.shooflyart.com and be on my way to purchase some frames for these lovely little pieces.