Category: All letters

Bill himself is 5’11” – not handsome, I think, though some girls do – but has charm

EDITOR’S PICK

To Marie Shubert from Bertha Ballou – Approx. 1943

[Note: Bertha is about 53 years old. She is a professional artist in Spokane, WA and lives with her sister Sally, who is a librarian.]

2920 W. Sherwood

Spokane

Dear Marie,

Just received your card and + glad as always to hear from you and your interesting family. Please tell Dorothy, to whom I shall also write immediately – I hope – that I meant to have sent you both cards but have been swamped professionally – believe it or not – orders and orders ahead – and was working so hard in getting on fine in spite of having my brother’s boy – 16 – on our hands now [Note: This was Bill Ballou, the grandfather of the editor.] and then flu – no possibility of giving up and going to bed – just got up a little later – Sally doing the breakfast – then did the telephoning & husking up & dinner preparing and packages wrapping – lying down on the couch when I got too exhausted, then up and at it again.

Library down & its last possible substitute short of closing doors so when Sally came down with flu she took least possible time off and I jumped into breach here at home because she was sicker. She went back to work just before Xmas the day after Bill was down – of course he had to be put to bed and waited on & was cross as a bear – and away from his brothers for the first time so today for the second time only have I been able to work a little on a portrait whose background I am redoing while too indisposed to take on sitters – well it has been hectic and I’m not the gal that you are – too much work has the effect of stunning me – & none too bright at best.  

Am inclined to dwell on the difficulties when I write – actually, if I didn’t have this household drudgery, life would be quite a lot of fun. I’m old and squat and fat, but two or three years ago the town’s eligible widower said (to someone else) that I was the handsomest single woman (naturally of a “certain age”) in Spokane.  

I’m not – but Sally say I’ve held my own as well as anybody except my best friend who is beautiful – & rich so that she has gorgeous clothes – (I have some of them too – because she passes them on when she’s tired of them – or doesn’t like them – & I make them over – but it’s a secret. Also, while the man interest has passed out of my life except for endeavors to please my captive’s 16 year old – I do have a lot of fun doing portraits.  

Much of my momentary prosperity is due to my good fortune in pleasing a sitter whom I did last summer. He has become an indefatigable promoter and has given me five more commissions himself – four small ones and one (a) larger – a replica of the first portrait – isn’t that a joke?  but a lovely one for me. Of course everything here is on a modest scale – I make no more than a living. A very modest one in ordinary times – and with rising prices etc – I hope this year to be able to finish paying for the tiny orchard on the vacant lot next (to) my studio.  Have watered the trees & gathered the apples for years. The trees are old or gnarled & Rachamesque – & I adore them – & now they are mine – or will be, I trust, by 1945 – and some other projects that we have had in mind may be realized – possibly.

Our days pass in work – our evenings in reading – much interrupted by the necessity of pushing, pulling and prodding the youth through the intricacies of math, English & Spanish. If we can manage it financially we plan on trying to induce his father to let him go to a Canadian boy’s school next year. A little British polish and mannerliness will not be out of place and the strain on Aunts will be considerably less.

Besides the aforementioned interest we have cats – many. They are very naughty & amusing & the way they can take balls off a Christmas tree is surprising – this morning I saw one love long haired “Cream-puff” standing on top of an electrolier [Note: A chandelier] (with an old fashioned solid top) on his hind legs reaching up for the higher balls that had escaped before. He got two. Our tree is always a small one which stands in a great brass jardiniere on a big table – & reaches from there up to our rather high ceiling.

Bill love the cats & when he is well anywhere up to seven may be found sleeping with him. Bill himself is 5’11” – not handsome, I think, though some girls do – but has charm. Not too many brains – but I think he’s a better boy than his father was at the same age which frankly is not excessive praise.

Now must get on with the job. Love & Happy New Year – BBB

A most interesting commission to which I have devoted most of my painting and much of reading time during the past year

To Spokane Bank from Bertha (draft letter) – Approx. 1948

[Note: Bertha is about 58 years old.]
[Note: In 1948, the First Federal Savings Loan Bank in Spokane commissioned her to do an Indian theme mural, and for accuracy in re-creating the figures, she lived with the Colville tribe at their reservation in eastern Washington. Likely from her memory bank, she also recreated scenes from frontier forts, including Fort Niobrara, where she had lived as a youth.]

I am glad to have the opportunity of thanking Mr. Lindsay, the director of the 1st Federal Savings and Loan and Mr. ______ for his most interesting commission to which I have spent devoted most of my painting and much of reading time during the past year.

I believe it was Mr. ______ who first suggested that I paint a Spokane _____. It immediately appealed to me as the ideal subject for a Spokane bank. Not only because it was one of the earliest settlements in this past century, but because it was the very first commercial enterprise in this particular locality.

The work of an historical artist is like that of a newspaper reporter in some respects at least ______ collect as many facts as possible and then endeavor to present them to the public in an interesting a manner as possible.

So after making a few purely _____ sketches based on general information, I said about learning everything I could as possible about the subject.

The Indians were not quite new to me as I spent most of my early childhood in contact with them and have always carried with me memories of their camps, their dances, their horses, their children and their dogs.

I read everything I could lay my hands on that had to do with the early traders, explorers and Indians.

[Note: She lists various books and draft letter is cut short.]

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