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* Artist Herbert Creecy does his thing in Barnesville warehouse.
Artist left rat race
Herbert Creecy feels the purity of art
is suffering as the result of big money
investors who are after monetary
return and the social acceptance art
affords them.
“There are about 40,000 artists living
on Manhattan Island (New York) and
they’re all struggling to gain ac
ceptance by the big money holders,”
said Creecy.
“It isn’t enough for the so-called
collectors to buy the painting. The
artist has to attend a special social
gathering at the buyer’s home and be
‘seen’ hanging the painting. It’s a rat
race.”
That’s one reason Creecy chose to do
his work in the South, his home, in an
old Barnesville warehouse. Situated in
downtown Barnesville, Creecy, an
accomplished acrylics artist, works
and lives in a building which used to be
a cotton warehouse, the front of which
he rents to the proprietor of a
restaurant.
Inside, at one end of the warehouse, is
a spacious area half the size of a
basketball court with walls of
whitewashed brick covered by huge,
stretched canvases of near-finished
paintings situated under special lights.
His work area is beneath a skylight
where canvases hang from nails on a
temporary wall a few feet removed
from the side of the warehouse.
The floors, of heavy boards worn with
time, are covered by droppings of
Brakeman couldn’t wave children off railroad tracks
HUNTINGTON PARK, Calif. (AP) -
It’s a sight dreaded by every train
, engineer — kids on the tracks, heads
down.
Larry Van Daele was pulling his 15-
car freight toward its home yard after a
daily run to Los Angeles harbor
Thursday when he spotted four
children, hand in hand, idly stepping
• from tie to tie, a Union pacific
spokesman said.
Slowly, they came toward him.
He sounded his diesel’s shrill whistle.
GRIFFIN
DAI
Daily Since 1872
acrylics. Brushes and tubes of paint lay
strewn about on crudely made tables
and in pasteboard boxes on the floor.
At the opposite end of the warehouse,
in one comer, the floor has been
elevated and stairs lead up onto a
platform where a slab of marble resting
on large cuts of wood serves as a coffee
table. A comfortable sofa and chairs
surround the table. The kitchen and
bathroom are partitioned with un
finished wood and the sleeping area is
located in a loft above them. Pieces of
sculpture and paintings adorn the walls
and tables.
“I’m a southerner; this is my home. I
just wouldn’t like living in New York,”
said Creecy.
“Living there is okay if, as one of my
friends there said, ‘you don’t mind
returning home and finding that your
furniture has been stolen.’ If I ever go
to live in a major city it would be
Atlanta or Paris...some place that is
pleasant to live in.”'\
But living in the South can hurt an
artist’s career said Creecy. “The South
doesn’t have the wealth to support art,”
he said.
“When money gets tight, as it is now,
the first thing to go is art. A good art
market requires a lot of money. It
follows that artists in a poor market are
not exposed to a lot of art and so they
don’t learn as much about it as those in
a good market.”
The artist, bom in Norfork, Va., spent
But they kept coming.
He sounded the whistle again and
threw on the emergency brake.
The train slowed, but only gradually.
Brakeman Maurice Dieu leaped from
the train, running and waving at the
kids. The railroad said the freight was
traveling at less than the 20 m.p.h train
yard speed limit.
“But the four of them, they were
looking directly down at the ties,” said
Dieu.
He said he climbed onto the platform
Griffin, Ga., 30223, Friday Afternoon, July 8,1977
most of his adolescence living in Atlanta
where he later had studios on 15th
street. He attended the University of
Alabama and the Atlanta Art Institute
and studied etching in France under S.
Stanley Hayter, originally from
England and one of the world’s
foremost printers, having worked with
such famous artists as Dali and
Picasso.
Contrary to popular opinion, painting
is hard work he said.
“It’s like anything else, you have to
stick with it and it requires longevity.
“I work different ways, sometimes I
get into it and work for long periods of
time. Other times I’ll work a while and
then quit and come back to it and see
new things in the work.
“Basically I’m working with shapes,
lines and color to create illusions. I’m
constantly searching for things;
looking for things that interest me.”
Creecy has paintings in 5 major
museums in the U.S. including the
Whitney in New York, the Atlanta
Museum of Art, a museum in Min
neapolis, Akron and Palm Beach. His
works are handled by agents. His last
show was at the Cochran Biannual
Show in February. He has been doing
nothing but painting for 12 years, the
last 4 in Barnesville.
“It’s what I like to do best.
Sometimes I like it and sometimes I
hate it but I plan to go on painting for as
long as I can.”
in front of the engine.
“I thought, well, maybe my voice
might carry... I have no idea why they
didn’t hear the whistle.”
Three of the children were killed on
the rails as the train ground to a stop.
The fourth was critically injured.
No one knows why they didn’t move.
“The brakeman got out and waved
and hollered and everything else,” said
Union Pacific spokesman John Forbes.
“Have you ever heard a diesel whistle?
It turns you blue.”
Area swelters
in 101 reading
No relief from the heat is in sight, the
National Weather Service in Georgia
said.
The heat sent the temperature to 101
degrees at the Spalding Forestry Unit
Thursday afternoon. That’s the highest
it has been in many years in Griffin.
The day before, the temperature hit
100 at the Forestry headquarters.
Extended forecasts indicated the
heat would continue through Monday or
longer.
The best the forecasters could do was
hold hope for scattered afternoon or
evening showers. But they didn’t sound
very hopeful.
Elsewhere over Georgia, the
Associated Press reported:
Officials of Georgia Power Co.’s
parent firm, the Southern Co.,
predicted an all-time record demand
for electricity as the heat wave sent
Georgians in search of air conditioners.
The weather service predicted little
relief from the heat through Saturday.
The forecast calls for readings in the
mid 90s to 100 with lows in the 70s.
Isolated thundershowers are expected
in southern Georgia during the late
afternoons and evenings.
In addition, an air stagnation ad
visory has been posted for Georgia.
The stagnant high pressure system
will remain stationary until midnight
tonight, forecasters said. This could
cause breathing problems for persons
with respiratory difficulties because
smoke, dust and gases will accumulate
near the ground, especially during the
night and early morning.
The weather service said Columbus
reached 104 degrees at 3 p.m. Thurs
day, making it the southwest Georgia
city’s hottest day in 25 years. It also
marked Columbus’ second consecutive
day of temperatures over 100 degrees
and the 28th consecutive day with a
reading over 90.
Rome reported a reading of 103, while
LaGrange, Macon and Savannah
reported readings of 101 and Athens and
Augusta each hit 100. The thermometer
in Atlanta reached 97, which
meteorologists said was the city’s
hottest day since July 3, 1970.
After the heat built up, scattered
thunderstorms developed in
southeastern and southern Georgia.
Savannah got some relief when a
thunderstorm struck in midafternoon,
dropping 1.17 inches of rain in an hour
and lowering the temperature 21
degrees.
The Country Parson
by Frank Clark
“We tend to praise folks after
they die—when we’re sure they
aren’t about to do something
foolish.”
But Van Daele “was pushing a
thousand tons ... He tried, but trains
don’t stop like automobiles,” Forbes
said.
“Before we identified them, we
thought they might be handicapped,”
Forbes said of the children. “We
thought they might be deaf.”
Amanda Lack, 7; her 6-year-old
brother Jason, 6; and Julie Kline, 10,
were killed. Julie’s 8-year-old sister
Holly was listed in “extremely critical”
condition at St. Francis Hospital after
Vol. 105 No. 160
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Remember?
Remember this picture of Maddox road we published earlier this year when the
community was in the grips of one of Its worst winters in modern history? We
thought looking at it might bring a moment of relief from the record heat that
promises to be with us through the weekend. Some folks last winter vowed not to
complain when summer came, regardless of how hot it got.
City okays $25,000
for library budget
City Commissioners met Thursday
night and approved funding $25,000 to
the Flint River Regional Library
budget for the new fiscal year which
began July 1.
The vote was 3 to 2 and included a
provision that before the money is
delivered, the city receive a new budget
reflecting the $50,000 in cuts approved
by both the city and county boards of
commission Thursday morning.
The county had already said it would
pay half or $25,000.
The city also stipulated that the
library submit a 1979 budget 90 days
prior to next July 1.
The motion was made by Com
missioner Dick Mullins who agreed
with other commissioners that library
salaries were excessive. “But in the
interest of harmony and of preventing a
situation which might cause discord
and dissension in the community, I think
we should go ahead and contribute
$25,000,” he said.
Mullins noted the amount was $7,000
more than the city has been con
tributing each year and $16,000 more
than was budgeted this year.
His motion was seconded by Mayor
undergoing emergency surgery.
On their way home from a morning in
the park on a hot summer day, they had
decided to stop at the trainyard in this
largely industrial suburb.
“They use it as a playground, un
fortunately" Forbes said. “There are
kids all over.
Forbes said Van Daele “saw their
eyes and he just couldn’t understand
why they didn’t move. The engineer is
(nearly) in shock.”
Weather
FORECAST FOR GRIFFIN AREA-
Continued hot and humid through
Saturday with chance of afternoon or
evening thundershowers. Lows tonight
in mid 70s and highs Saturday in upper
90s.
LOCAL WEATHER—Low this
morning at the Spalding Forestry Unit
73, high Thursday 101.
Raymond Head.
“I really don’t want to give them
anything, but I agree with Dick, we
need harmony. The only way I’ll go
along is if they guarantee to cut out the
fat,” said Commissioner Ernest
“Tiggy” Jones.
Commissioners Louis Goldstein and
R. L. “Skeeter” Norsworthy voted
against the funding.
Norsworthy said he would go along
with the city’s paying $20,000 instead
and “I don’t like that. The salaries
make me sick. They are ridiculous,” he
said.
Goldstein took a swipe at the library
board calling it “ineffective”.
“The whole board ought to be
replaced. This whole thing is
camouflaged..l’d like to see an audit,”
he said referring to several apparent
discrepancies in the budget.
He noted that the budget submitted
for the new year contained last year’s
salaries and did not reflect more than
$13,000 in pay hikes built into new
budget totals.
(Continued on page six.)
People
••• and things
Vacationer returning home to Griffin
from trip to Georgia coast proclaiming
he needs another week of vacation to
get some rest.
Man wiping sweat from forehead,
looking with envy as young boy rides
bike by, clad only in walking shorts.
German shepherd type dog jumping
into compact car through window while
traffic was stopped at Ninth and Poplar
streets; occupants scatter.
