(OMED: To give you an idea of the many moods of Haystack Rock, we've included some fine photos by George Vetter )

   Richard Gorsuch says he has no particular reason for painting Haystack Rock every day.  Truth be told, he has a couple of big reasons and 365 little ones, as Richard is halfway through painting the local landmark every day  for a full year.
   “There’s no reason to do it. It’s an elusivedriving force. People say they climb Mount Everest because it’s there,” says Richard, a Cannon Beach resident and visual artist. “It’s hard to be logical at times. But I’m more fully alive if I do it.”

   And Richard would know. A near-death experience in 1965 altered his sense of destiny in more ways than one. He made his peace with God and became a Christian, and developed a personal lifetime philosophy: cultivate the seed God placed inside you. Seek to serve others with your gifts in a generous, unselfish manner. Enjoy the adventurous spirit within.
   He lives that philosophy partially through canvas and paint. The son of writers, Richard grew up an only child in South Dakota. His mother had been a one-room school teacher who never read anything Richard wrote without “red inking it” and returning it. It was she who saw Richard’s artistic talent, when he was as young as 2 or 3.

    “So for 60-plus years I’ve been committed to it,” said Richard, 68. “As far back as I can  remember it’s been my passion.”
   It’s a passion that’s enabled him to make a living, while enjoying not only his work, but his life.   He earned a bachelor’s degree in advertising art from the University of South Dakota and did advanced art studies at the University of Mexico. Following a stint in the U.S. Navy, he returned to South Dakota and opened an ad agency. Married and with two sons, Richard was a success  in the business.
    “I was young and didn’t know any better, and it was a tough game,” recalled Richard. “But I  had my own way of doing things and it produced results.”

    Then he was critically injured in an automobile accident that produced the destiny-altering  near-death experience. Following a year-long recovery, Richard and some of his colleagues  formed a mobile think tank that traveled all over the nation with innovative media campaigns. The group was incredibly successful, but the wear and tear of constant travel wore them out. The company dissolved and Richard and the family moved to the Colorado Rockies, where  Richard — by then divorced — could return to his art.
   “I raised the boys and lived as an artist recluse for a period,” recalled Richard, whose “boys”  are now grown and the parents of Richard’s four grandchildren. “I had to go back to the well and restock.”

   He says he “got well” there, then returned to South Dakota for a while. He moved his aging  parents to Eugene, to be closer to his mother’s family, and cared for them until their deaths. In the process, he found Bonny, the woman who would become his wife and the reason Richard is in Cannon Beach.
    “She grew up in Manhattan Beach, California, where the beach and town are nterconnected,” explained Richard. “The culture, ambiance, people, water, sand ... they are all connected. Our  location here was based on that history. Bonny had a vision for our way of life here.”
   Two boys — Sketch and Colour, now 10 and 13 — were born to Richard and Bonny, and the family moved from the Willamette Valley and set up housekeeping in the presidential  neighborhood of Cannon Beach. Bonny recently opened a shop downtown while Richard  continues working for Harvest House, a Christian publishing company. Richard is a consultant for projects that include new products, in-store merchandising, book cover designs and the like.

   He also paints, and last winter decided to take on a year-long project of self discipline. He  opted for a daily painting of Haystack Rock, from the same vintage point, every day for a year.
   “Things will come against you to prevent you from doing whatever it is (jogging, daily prayer,  writing, etc.),” said Richard. “But you’re more true to yourself if you do daily discipline. It’s a  way to honor what’s within.”
   Richard’s daily discipline is to start — and more importantly — to finish an oil painting of  Haystack Rock from the same spot, at the end of W. Jackson, just over the dunes. He hopes to  paint every 15-minute segment from predawn to the full moon over the course of the year, one  day at a time. He dates each painting, and journals each one with information such as tides, cloud descriptions, temperature and wind.

   He paints in rain and shine, fog or clear skies, and notes the weather often adds — literally — to his work. More than one of his paintings, which are 6.75” by 9”, have sand embedded in the  paint, the sand permanently embedded by fierce winds.
   “And sand has mica in it, which reflects light,” explained Richard. “I think it really adds to the  painting.”
   Light also changes the look of the rock. In bright sunlight, the rock takes shape and crevices  appear. With little or no light, the rock appears as a silhouette, a template. When mist of fog  shrouds the rock, Richard gets a feeling for the shape, but when the fog blows away, he can see  the rock as a marine sanctuary.

   “I’m not obsessed with the rock, but I’ve never bored with it,” he explained. “I’m always  fascinated by it. It’s not just a rock, but a living thing.”
   He says he doubts Cannon Beach would not likely be the place people come to see and enjoy  without Haystack Rock.
   “Would this place be the same without the rock? Is it important? Yes, it is. The rock speaks to  people,” Richard says. “The rock gives this place a sense of unique presence in the paradise  landscape of both the beautiful coastal scenery and the village environment.”
   He paints in oil, mostly on canvas but sometimes on Masonite boards. Richard says acrylics are not forgiving and with watercolors “you win or lose with each brush stroke.”

   “With oil you can create different types of color or luminosity, you can control the outcome of a painting by changing if you need to,” said Richard. “Oil gives me the chance to play with color in  a way that suits me.”
   His plan is to “paint the town,” one building, courtyard, fence or dune at a time. Some of his  paintings have been displayed and sold at Bonny’s shop in Heather’s Courtyard. He sells them  inexpensively, which goes back to his life philosophy of serving others with his gifts in a  generous, unselfish manner.

   “It was Emerson who said ‘if you want to become valuable, make yourself valuable.’ If you  have a talent, bring it as a gift to others. That’s carried me throughout life. Find someone’s need,  offer an artistic approach to it,” said Richard. “My game plan is to paint the whole town and  pick up the ambiance, because I really think people are looking for that, to be able to take some of it home.”
   When he’s completely finished with the Haystack Rock project, he hopes to make a video of  the 365 images, then marry the video with some carefully written narration about the area’s life as a marine garden and what Richard calls a “nature mystery.”
   “I think that will have a lot of meaning,” he added.

   Richard says he has no real hobbies because he’s “doing the diversion.”
   “I used to think I was a writer, but I’m not. I’m a visual artist. I like meeting the craving for  self-expression. I need it to stay alive,” he explained. “And my art is very simple. I look at  something beautiful, and look for spots of color. How I mix the color and stick it on the picture  there’s the challenge.”

Text and top photo © 2002 Cannon Beach Gazette  All other photos © George Vetter  The Vetter photos are all links to the Cannon-Beach dot net page. Click on "Photo Library" to see a wider selection of Vetter's coastal shots.