Nick's family had long anticipated their trip to Italy. But the Greens became the victims of a botched highway robbery. Reg attempted to distance his young family from danger and sped away as shots rang out. But Nick, riding in back with his sister, had been hit. While on life support, but with hope gone, Maggie and Reg Green told the doctors that Nicholas' organs could be donated.

Justin expressed why he creates cutout silhouettes. He exlained his fascination for how intense modern civilization and images of the Old West coexist. Justin went on to tell Reg about other images he's placed along LA freeways, including John Wayne and Gene Autry.

After speaking, Justin settled back and listenened intently as Reg told his story. Reg told Justin about a piece of roadside art up north in Bodega Bay, the Children's Tower of the Bells. He related the entire story of Nicholas and their family vacation in Italy, and all that followed in its wake.

Before parting, Reg and Justin exchanged contact information. Soon afterward, Reg received word that Justin had replaced his cutout silhouette of Clint Eastwood, but this time, instead of Clint resting his right hand on his Colt 45, he was extending it outward, holding a bell for all to see. On the back of his silhouette, Justin retold the story of Nicholas Green and of the Children's Tower of the Bells in Bodega Bay, and asked hikers to ring the bell, and dedicate themselves to the cause of organ donation.

And so, Nick's story grows.

Nick's story has been told in a book, The Nicholas Effect. The book is well known, and is often offered in hospitals to parents who find themselves in a situation similar to the one experienced by the Green Family.

A 1998 film entitled Nicholas' Gift told the story of the Green Family. It starred Jamie Lee Curtis and Alan Bates.

Marvin Cone lived his life in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and his works reside mainly in the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art (and other museums) along with the works of his contemporary and friend Grant Wood.  The museum has presented exhibitions such as "The Sky's The Limit," featuring his cloud procession paintings.

He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in France, and spent time in Paris, traveling with Grant Wood.  He did not achieve great fame

during his lifetime although he was well respected by other painters.  Now, his river series and Stone City landscapes have auctioned for as much as $752,500, his barns for as much as $186,000, his clouds as much as $103,500, his rooms with doors as much as $99,880, and his abstract panels as much as $24,400.  (Few of his paintings have auctioned for less than $10,000 during the period covered by AskArt. This compares favorably with the best of California non-abstract painters.)

Obviously, his paintings are inspirational for their beauty. But there is a freedom of creativity behind them that is as much clarifying as liberating.  For example, he once stated, "The purpose of art is not to reproduce life, but to present an editorial, a comment on life.... The artist does not set out to imitate nature.

What would be the purpose of that?

Let the camera with its clever mechanism imitate.  Art, such as poetry, music, and painting, is simply a portion of the experience of the artist. When we actually see ideals, they become real to us. Art traces an abstraction and makes it audible or visual.  It symbolizes the whole of life. We believe in something we can see."

Cone expressed a vision of truths through nature rather than a realistic depiction of rural scenes.  They "feel" real, evoking a

sense of home, of where we come from, of safety and comfort. Although the river series and Stone City paintings are from a region different from California, their beauty is not dissimilar from the hilly and rolling grassy landscapes with lines of trees of West Sonoma County and West Marin in California.  

They remind us that this earth's surface is the only and best home that we have and that we should appreciate it for nurturing us. His cloud-focused paintings with their complex layers provide a sense of exhilaration. And they show the value of a painter's having signature themes that he or she can elaborate upon and experiment with, without being bound by the exact appearance of the sky at one particular moment.  There is humor, too, as in the pointy-faced sheep poised precariously on slopes rolling away from the viewer, and in the eyes of pictures on the walls of his room paintings.

Further images can be seen in books about Marvin Cone and Grant Wood at the gallery.

He was born northwest of Nashville in Gallatin, TN in 1945. After a stint in the marine corps, he served on the staff of Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee. This lead to an opportunity to do human interest stories for WSM TV in Nashville. Huell really enjoyed human interest

journalism, and remained active in it the rest of his life.

After moving to New York, Huell hosted WCBS-TV's "Real Life" Show. In 1981 he moved to Los Angeles. He first served as a weekend host of "Entertainment Tonight," while doing "Videolog" for PBS affiliate KCET. His affiliation with KCET eventually lead to an opportunity for Huell to host California's Gold. Although Huell would say it was California that was the star attraction of his broadcasts, it is fair to say that his personality and accent made him a welcome friendly voice for those who became fans of his shows.

Huell brought an outsider's curiosity and sense of newness to each episode. His accent and open style of questioning helped people open up before his microphone and camera. Many of the people who were interviewed by Huell commented how they were able to open up when Huell conversed with them. His style disarmed the normal defenses of an interviewee, eliciting wonderfully free- flowing conversational dialog.

With his crew adding great video, sound and top notch editing, each episode of California's Gold made for informative and entertaining excursions to all kinds of places and events around the state which would otherwise go unnoticed.

Huell had a home in Twentynine Palms, a community of independent minded desert dwellers just north of Joshua Tree National Monument in the high Mojave Desert. He was most supportive of the Twentynine Palms Community, including the artists who centered their activity around the Twentynine Palms Art Gallery.

One of the artists whom Huell befriended was Kathi Hilton. In September, Kathi was featured in an exhibit at the Twentynine Palms Art Gallery. Kathi's father, artist John W. Hilton, was one of the founding members of the gallery. Huell helped arrange for the exhibit, and hoped to attend. As Kathi prepared for this exhibit, she contacted our gallery, and we arranged to exhibit Kathi's paintings here after their showing in Twentynine Palms. We visited the opening of Kathi's show, and even had a telephone conversation with Huell Howser about meeting him at the opening. But when the time came, Huell had sent word to the exhibition that he was ailing and would not be able to attend.

The Walt Disney Family Museum
(See their new website!)
Special Exhibition: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
through Apri 14
This museum tells Walt's story from the early days.
(on the Parade Grounds) 104 Montgomery Street,
The Presidio of San Francisco, CA 94129
-- view location on Google Maps --