Shortly after Aunt Irma and Mother passed away I received a phone call from Bob White at Neiman Marcus. He wanted rattan designs for their "Art of Fashion" promotion that was to take place in the spring of 2002 and he ordered designs for all of their stores including the Hawaii, London and Paris stores.
Extracting material from the swamps had become more than my body wanted to do. More often than not, I found myself leaning back against a big cottonwood tree dreaming of floating down Red River.
I made up my mind, this would be my last Stick Art commission and I had no desire to build furniture ? my heart wasn't in it. I had discovered a new passion that consumed me.
Dad's long lost dream of making a float trip down Red River to the Mississippi River had rekindled itself in my heart. I reached the time in my life when I either needed to make the trip or I needed to forget about it. Like Dad dreamed of doing over, 50 years ago, I began building a boat especially for the occasion.