Raymond Creekmore (AM 1904-1985) - A Character - Etching, ca. 1940�s, 5 3/8 x 4 1/2, signed and titled in pencil. This is a beautiful piece in excellent condition.

Raymond Creekmore�s career spanned eighty years of life, that was filled with vast travels. In 1937 Creekmore quit his job at the Baltimore Sun, where he was employed as an artist to embark on a lone trip around the globe.

His journey started with a drive to Spokane, Washington where he sold his car and signed up as a seaman on a merchant ship to Japan. There, he spent several weeks sketching Japanese life and sold his drawings to Japanese and American newspapers. This was prior to Pearl Harbor, however, he was once detained for 24 hours for sketching the military activity of Japanese soldiers.

He made his way to outer Magnolia and lived with nomads. He then hiked to Burma and rode a train through Kashmir, where he lived in a luxurious house with a servant for a dollar a day. Following a successful climb the Kotshoi peak, he made his way to Russia, Finland, and Norway.

Upon his return to the States, he volunteered for World War II, giving him another means to explore the world and sketch the scenes of his unordinary every day life. His sketches included that of military life and culture of the European and Japanese civilians he encountered along his journey. He was also commissioned by the Army Corps to sketch combat in Africa, Greenland, England, Burma, etc. Upon his return to the United States, he finished his career as a boat builder. His work is filled with iconic cultural images, frozen in time.�