Ep. 721 - Jim Hautman: A Legacy in Wildlife Art - Ducks Unlimited Podcast

Episode Transcript
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VO (01:41):
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Katie Burke (02:47):
Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the Ducks
Unlimited podcast. I'm yourhost, Katie Burke, and today on
the show, I have wildlife artistand seven time winner of the
duck stamp, Jim Hautman. Welcometo the show, Jim.

Jim Hautman (02:58):
Well, thank you. Thanks for having me on. It's an
honor.

It's an honor to have you on. I was listening I
mean, we've actually had toreschedule a couple times
because of life, but I waslistening to when I interviewed
your brother not that long ago,and I guess well, I guess it's
been a while now. When did hewhen did

I think yeah. Joe won, I think, four years ago.

So, yeah, it was right after your last win. Like,
was Right.

Yes. So he has and then when you win, you have to
sit out for three years. So hewasn't in it this year, but
he'll be back.

He has to win next year to tie you.

He does. Yep.

So what order I forgot. He's older. Right?
Correct?

He yep. Joe's older, and then I'm the
youngest, and then Bob's inbetween me and Joe as far as the
boys go. We had seven kids,though.

Seven. Okay. I thought that was gonna be five,
but there's seven. So there'sfour girls?

Two girls, five girls.

Five boys. Yep. Are you the baby?

I am the baby. Yeah.

It's good to be the baby. I'm also the baby. So
let's kinda go back to thebeginning because I don't know
how many people know y'all'sstory and and your story in
particular, but I kind of butit's interesting because you
have kind of an artsy I knowwhen I talked to Joe, y'all have
kind of always had art in yourlife. So can you kinda go back

(04:25):
to what it was like growing upin Minnesota and, like, having
kind of an artsy an outdoor lifeand as well as like an art
background like in your familylife?

Yeah. Yeah. Well, we grew up in an artistic
family. My mom was aprofessional artist and my dad
never considered himself anartist but he was very good. He
and he did paintings of almostexclusively duck paintings back
in the forties and fifties.
And I was born in '64. By thetime I came along, he had never

(04:58):
painted again, but but he kindaliked to duck hunt. He liked
everything about ducks and he'sthe one that taught us about the
different species. And and Iremember him saying that he
collected duck stamps startingwith the very first one. And I
remember him saying there's acontest for that that you could
enter and he said, you know, Ialways wanted to enter but he

(05:20):
never got around to it.
So it was quite the thrill forhim when we started winning some
of

these things. Yeah. I didn't realize, I knew that
your mother was an artist and Iknew that your father hunted and
stuff, and I knew he collectedducks, but I didn't realize he
also was, like, drew like,painted and, like, was an
artist. Yeah. He And ducksspecifically.
That's interesting.

Yeah. He was a big duck hunter. And then by the
time I was old enough to hunt,he had quit hunting by then too,
so he would he would just tellus how to do it. He would tell
us where to go and what to do,and then we'd come home and
report us, and he'd he'd tell uswhat we did wrong. And As

dads do.

You hear that banging in the background?
There's a turkey.

Oh, I don't hear it. You have a turkey?

He's fighting with his reflection in the glass on
my studio window.

I can't believe he's that fired up. It's it's
October.

Yeah. I know. I can't either. It's been a
strange year though. I mean, itwe had such a warm fall.

Yeah.

The the lilacs started blooming, and I've
hardly got any duck hunting inbecause it's been so warm. Yeah.
But it's turning cold today, soI don't know what he's doing.

Yeah. So we've had our kind of like our first touch
of fall down here. It's beenreally hot here too. Yeah. I
hear him back there.
That's funny.

You want me to go chase him off?

No. It's fine.

You take him off?

It's fine. No. It's perfectly fine. Yeah. That's
hilarious.
Yeah. It's been kind of warmhere too. We're first finally
getting it. It is what it is.Hopefully, it'll get cold for
us, but probably won't get coldin time for y'all to duck hunt.
But

Yeah. I think it's coming. It's about 45 degrees
and rainy and windy today, sotoday would would have been a
good day. But I finally turnedthe heat on, turned the furnace
on for the first time thismorning.

I was late. With you being the youngest and your
dad teaching you to like, well,him being the hunting one, did
he teach any of your brothers tohunt?

He did. Yeah. He took out the the older boys
some, but and me being the lastone, he didn't. And like I said,
he would tell us what to do. Andthen eventually towards the end,
he we got him out there a coupletimes.
And we I remember we couldn'thit anything and and one time we
said, alright, you gotta show ushow to do it. We we had a

(07:33):
mallard in a pond that we knewwhere it was. So he walked out
there and the bird got up andwas just flying away and he
wasn't shooting. His gun was athis side and I thought, well,
he's not gonna shoot. Well, Boband I would have shot our three
shots off too early and missed.
And we thought, well, he's notgonna shoot, and then it finally
got out there about 35 yards,and he pulled up and dropped the

(07:56):
bird. And that was that wasquite the lesson. I was like,
alright. Be calm. Mhmm.
Let it get to the right rangeand and then go.

Oh, yeah. No. We called my my sister-in-law hunts
with us, and she never hunted.She just started hunting when
she married my brother, and wealways call her pow pow because
she has a little over under 20 kshotgun, and that thing goes off
so quick. Like, it's just like,pow pow.

That's the excitement of when it's new when
it's new to you.

Yeah. Was like, those shots go off before she
even gets her gun up. Like,they're just so quick.

Yeah.

So it's different for me because my brother is I'm
the youngest, and my brotherhunted with my dad a lot, and
then he got to a certain agewhere he wanted to go hunt it
with his friends and, like, sodad lost his buddy. And as a
girl, I got lucky in thatbecause I was there and willing
to go, so I got to go huntingpretty like, I got to go a lot

(08:50):
just because he Christopher wastoo cool to, like, go with my
dad at that point.

Oh, that's Yeah.

But you had big brother, so I'm guessing you had
plenty of people to help youout.

Yeah. Yeah. It was really just so exciting. I just
always wanted to hunt, know, andand I he would send us out to in
Western Minnesota and it was aWPA course bought with duck
stamp dollars. And he said hewas very careful about
trespassing and and everythingand he's like, here's a place I

(09:22):
know you can hunt.
And so that's just where wehunted every time we went for
the first three or four years.We went right on this point. He
told us to go and we were stillusing his cork decoys that he
carved back in

Oh, that's cool.

In the thirties when he was a kid. And we'd put
all the old cork decoys out andwe'd say, they're not coming in.
It's the decoys. He said, it'snot the decoys. Of course, it
wasn't the decoys.
And we eventually went andbought a bunch of new plastic
decoys and and they didn't workany better than the Corkys did.
But at least we we weren'tlosing them and wrecking them

(09:58):
anymore because they're kind ofcollector's items.

Yeah. Was just saying, did you keep any of
them?

I do. Yeah. I have I have a pair of blue bills,
pair of cans, pair of mallards,and a couple standing mallards,
and everybody in the family hasa few. You know, he I think he
had 72 of them at one point.Yeah.

That's a lot. Yeah. That's a big rig of I mean, we
all have we all do bigger rigsup there than we do, but did you
have to repaint them at all ordid he you have them all, like,
original?

Yeah. Yeah. We repainted them now and then. I
kinda hated to do it too.

Yeah. But you were using them. So I mean True.
Yeah. That's the one thing,like, because I deal a lot with
with the museum and stuff.
I'm always with dealing withdecoys and antique decoys, but,
like, I think now with peoplecollecting them like they do,
they forget, like, these arefirst and foremost useful
objects. These yeah. They weretools. We now consider them art,

(10:55):
but originally, they were tools,and you're gonna get especially
depending on, like, where youare in the country, you're gonna
get repaint, and you're gonnaget touch ups, and that's pretty
natural thing to get.

Yeah. Yeah. They're all shot up too, and that's
that's kinda cool. They havesome pellets in it.

Yeah. They have they have they've lived a life.
They've seen ducks. No. I thinkthat's cool.
I'm glad that you kept them.That's really neat. I can't
believe he had 72. That's a bigrig of decoys.

I know. It's so it was and they were heavy I
remember him telling a storyabout his dad. So my grandpa and
his friend one time when theywere using them, and he went
back to the the vehicle and theygot done and and they came back.
And instead of bagging them up,they all just grabbed a handful
of weights and dragged themacross a plowed cornfield. He

(11:48):
was so mad.

Yeah. I mean, that's a lot of work. I mean,
because I'm guessing they allhad woodheads.

Yeah. They're woodheads and a wooden keel and
then cork bodies and then

That's a lot of work.

And long cords too. We we hunt some deep water up
here too, so it's kind of apain. I mean, I remember we used
to have four or five that we'dhave, like, 40 foot cords on for
certain lakes we hunted justbecause that's what it took, you
know, but it it makes picking upa lot slower.

Yeah. It takes a long time to get all that up.
You know, I'm spoiled down herein Mississippi. We, you know, we
hunt in like three feet water.

Yeah. That would be nice.

Half the time, you don't even really need to put
weights on them. You can just gopick them up if they float away.
It's not a big deal. Oh, that'sreally interesting. So what was
your mom doing as an artist atthat time, as a professional
artist?

You know, by the time I came around, she had, you
know, seven kids, she quit theprofessional part of but she
always painted. So we grew upwith paints all over and as busy
as she was, she would alwaysfind time, you know, or she
would see something she wantedto paint. So she did everything
from still lives to landscapesto abstracts, and then

(13:01):
eventually, she got into doingkinda what I would call cave
art. It looked like the art youwould see in the paintings.
France.
Yeah. Yeah. Like, Laskow Cavetype stuff. So she went through
a lot of different phases, and,you know, I kinda learned that
from her. It really doesn'tmatter what you paint, you know,
like, you could paint make agood painting of anything,

(13:21):
really.
I remember one time, she and oneof her painting friends set up
their easels and were lookingfor something to paint, they
painted the trash cans and thegarbage in the corner, and and
they were great. So I learnedthat, yeah, it's it's not about
the subject matter. It's it'sjust about how you see whatever
you're looking at.

Yeah. That's really interesting because I I would
think that's pretty differentperspective from a lot of
wildlife artists, like or, like,a different it's not, like and
not to be disparaging, but Ifeel like it gets to be so
realistic, like but there's alot to learn from doing
different things. Right? Like,that's all very helpful in the

(14:03):
end because you you may learnthings that you can use in
something else. Right?
Like, you're learning a lot,Like, almost like doing
something simple like a trashcan, you learn so much about
light and color because it's tomake a trash can interesting, it
has to you have to do somethingto it. Right? Like, you can't

Well, it's interesting. You know, we're all
all, at least in my field,everybody's trying to be
realistic, but that's a prettybroad term. It's like, well,
realistic in what way? You know?It doesn't have to be the
detail.
It doesn't even have to be theanatomy, but but everybody sees
reality different too, and Ithink that's it's just
interesting how you see. Youknow, I've never tried to come

(14:43):
up with, like, a style, like aJim Hautman style. I I kinda try
not to do that. I kinda try tojust put on the canvas what I
see that I like.

I mean, it probably happens organically. I would
assume eventually it you have astyle organically, like, that
you don't realize you even do.

Exactly. I think that's that's what a style
really is. I mean, if you if youtry to come up with a style, I
don't think that would reallywork. I think you just have to
let it happen and, you know, youmay not even be able to see it,
but other people can see.

Yeah. Can I can pick out your stuff? Yeah. Yeah.
Okay.
I can. I can pick out yours isand now I don't know if I can
tell the difference between youand Joe. I can I usually can
tell Bob's? He has like, there'ssomething about his that are
usually a little bit different.Yeah.
But yours in

Well, Joe is the toughest one. I think he's the
toughest one to pick out justbecause he's a little more
experimental. You know, he'll doone thing, and then the next
painting, he'll use, you know,he'll do a watercolor y thing
and then he'll do somethingloose and then he'll do
something tight and he's yeah.He's probably be the toughest to

(16:02):
IV.

Yeah. And the only thing I can tell that y'all this
is where this is funny. Wheneveryou do anything flying, I can
pick out y'all's flying birdsway quicker than I can anything
like sitting on the water orsitting on the PS, like,
standing. And there's a difflike, you have with the way you
paint feathers, there'ssomething. Yeah.

It's and that's probably because there there's
more interpretation on a flyingbird, and I I like to do flying
birds, especially for the duckstamp contest because I mean, I
think they're harder to do Yeah.And so fewer people do them.
But, you know, most photographsof flying birds look weird.

Yeah. Because they're blur a lot of times
they're blurry.

They're blurrier if they're and even if they're
frozen in super focus, you don'tsee them like that. They don't
appear like that. So doing aflying bird is not you know, you
can't copy a photo usually andhave it look right because, you
know, I've taken I think I'vetaken over 2,000,000 photos and,
you know, it's one in a thousandthat's even worth looking at.

(17:09):
And but every time I do a flyingbird, I'm always adjusting to
make it look like they look notnot look like just how they
photograph.

Right. I would guess, like, this would be a
good example where hunting wouldhelp you when it comes to, like
and, like, being out in naturewith them, like, versus looking
at like, a lot of people look atphotographs and go take
photographs, but I would thinkhaving more experience seeing

(17:39):
birds flying and coming in, thatwould help you a lot within,
like, getting it right.

That's exactly right. I mean, because when
you're hunting and usually whenI hunt, I used to always bring
my camera, but I found I wouldalways grab a shotgun when birds
were coming in.

Yeah.

And you you really can't do both, but not having
the camera really helps becausethen then you can see how they
appear, not not how theyphotograph, but how they really
look. So I think it helps. Well,it obviously helps to have
photographs, but I think ithelps to spend a lot of time not
photographing and hunting is isthat for sure. So

Yeah. And because also, like, I would think if you
if you pick up the camera right,you're looking and then you're
shooting the picture, and thenyou're looking at the picture.
So like, because you can't helpI don't I don't know anyone who
can't take a picture and thenimmediately look at the screen,
like

Yeah. I agree.

Don't know if that's possible, but but you're
when you're hunting becauseyou're, you know, you're
eventually going to shoot,you're watching that bird come,
like, through the frame more.Right? Like, you're kind of
watching its full approach.Well, know, other thing you
miss, you're watching it leave.Like you're getting more of a
full motion of it.

Well, and also another big part of it is that,
you know, you have to be able toID the bird so you know if it's
a species that you wanna shootor if it's species that you can
shoot. So hunting, you reallylearn, like, why you know, it
may be dark out almost. And ifit's a redhead or a can coming
through, you learn thedifference because you have to.

(19:17):
You know? And and it's the waythey carry their head and the
shape and the wing beat and allthat stuff.
So I've people that I sometimeshunt hunt with will say, wow.
You must have amazing eyesbecause you can tell what kind
of bird that and that's it's notthe eyesight. Yeah. Just Knowing
what to look for. Start with thewing beat and just, you know,

(19:39):
the way they hold their head,how long their tail is, you
know, even if it's a silhouette.
And it's funny because everyyear, the first time out, it's
kind of hard, and then by theend of the season, you're dialed
in and you can just you can justfigure out what they are from,
you know, quarter mile away.

No. My husband is from Massachusetts and he did
not hunt before he met me.

Oh, really?

So yeah. He he's from, like, the burbs of Boston.
So he did not grow up in ahunting family, and I very much
did. So I am the hunter in thisin our relationship, and he's
still, like, I mean, we've beenmarried for, I don't know,
thirteen years now, and he'sstill, like he he still is like,
I don't know which what is what.You have to tell me.

(20:25):
And he, like, at because he's,like, he's, like, I just don't
have good eyesight. Was, it'snot about eyesight. It's, like
the pattern they make. I don'tknow. They the motion they make.
Like, certain birds fly in acertain way and other birds
don't. Like, I can just tell youby the way they're coming in,
like, what they are.

Yeah. And the flock the flock formation, that's
another good tip.

Yeah. That would be so beneficial when you're trying
to, like, get it right on canvasversus, like, looking at
pictures all the time becausewhen I look at especially on I
like that you do flying on theducks, because I don't think a
lot of artists think about Imean, I think the winners do,
like, people who've won or closeto winning, think about what

(21:06):
it's gonna look like when youthat's one of my biggest pet
peeves, like, with the ducksstamp is, like, they didn't
think about what this is gonnalook like when they shrink it
down. Like

Yeah.

Like like, they were just, like, thinking about
what they're gonna put on thissize canvas, but you also have
to think about what it's gonnalook like as a stamp, and the
flying birds really pop onstamps, like, especially if it's
the because my other biggest petpeeve is when people don't put
the full duck. I'm like, you'renot gonna win. You have to put
the full duck.

Yeah. Yeah. That's tough too. Yeah. I heard some
there was a couple commentsabout mine that that people
thought it would be

too confusing.

Because it's so great. It's three birds three
birds flying, and I wanted to dothree birds flying.

But you did a buffalo. You know,

they've gotten into this thing one they do a big
bird on the water because theyknow that'll look good as a
stamp. But, I mean, I shrunkmine down, when I was working on
it down to stamp size, and itwas clearly three buffalo heads
flying. So I

was worried about years and think that at all. I
yeah.

Good. Well, I I was worried that someone might think
it, though. You know? Well But Ithink they look at them through
a reducing glass at the judging,so they know they know what it
looks like small.

Yeah. Because that's a big yeah. That's the
big thing when I look, I'm like,well, this one's not gonna work
because that won't like, I well,I can, like, mark off a bunch of
people. Like, that's not gonnawork at this But, no, I would
think you're three becausethey're buffleheads too because,
like, they're little birds andthey fly in a they don't you
don't see single ones really,like, they kinda come in in a
group.

Well, they have such a distinctive pattern too.
I mean, that's that's what'swhat I appealed to me about them
and why I wanted to do themflying was just that pattern
when they fly is so striking,just that black and white
stripes. And I remember thefirst time seeing them fly by, I
was like, wow. I can't I can'tbelieve I just saw that.

And I think that's the cool thing about buffets.
Like, seeing a sittingbufflehead, I don't know.
They're not my favorite.They're, like, kind of they kind
of have a Grieve look to them.Yeah.
They are cute. Though. But Ithink I don't know. I just I
when I saw it like that, waslike, oh, that's gonna shrink
down and look nice. It'll pop.
Like, I because I think that'spart of it is it's gotta stand

(23:26):
out on the scenes.

It yeah. It's that's one thing interesting
about the contest is it's apainting that has to look good
next to a bunch of otherpaintings. You know? It's not a
standalone piece.

Interesting. I never thought of it that way,
but that's true.

Yeah. And and mine you know, and there's there's
some luck there too in that, youknow, when it got down to the
end, the last the last four werethree single birds Yeah.

And yours was the only fun. Yeah.

So, I mean, you know, if they're if they're
maybe they're splitting votes onthe on the other ones or
whatever it was, but, you know,I I didn't go into it thinking,
oh, yeah. I'm gonna win thisyear. I liked my piece, but but
as I watched the judging unfold,I started to have a feeling
like, hey. This this could win.And

Yeah. When I started getting down, realized I
was like, oh, they really don'tlike wood ducks this year.

I was

like, I I saw that was really surprising. I was
kinda shocked by that becauseusually wood ducks are super
them and pintails always win.

Yeah. Pintails are pintails are amazing.

Yeah. They all those are the two, like, I feel
like the most popular ones, andI was kind of shocked that they
just were like, nope. Notpicking any because Scott's wood
ducks were really good.

Yeah. Those were good. Yeah. He was leading after
the second round. And then

they just were like, nah. We don't want a wood
duck.

I don't know. Yeah. I don't know what went through
their minds. And Bob had areally nice one too. I thought
he

I don't think I knew which one his was. I need
to go back.

Yeah. His was the one that was right after

mine. So yeah.

It was a single buffalo head on the water.
Really, really well done. Youknow? And and there but there
was a lot of single birds on thewater. I think sometimes I think
sometimes the judges are lookingat 300 paintings and

Want something different. Yeah.

I don't know. Something different I think can
can help, but then you neverknow. I mean, next year maybe
it's a bunch of flying ones andthe guy with one on the water
wins. That sure happens.

And the judges are so different every time. Like,
you never know what Yeah. What'sgonna happen. Yeah.

Well, I was happy when I when I when the judging
started, I looked at the paneland and I think three of them
had camouflage on and anotherone I know was a a hunter and
and then I thought, okay. That'sgood. Because hunters in general
like flying birds probably morethan non hunters is my
observation.

Why do think that? Just interested.

Well, because they they see them they see them
Yeah.

It's more of, like, a feeling of place, I guess.
Like, yeah, that's something yousee. That makes sense. Because I
would think that's like the bigthing in wildlife art that
drives hunters to buy stuff isit like reminds them of a place
they hunt or

Exactly. Yep. It's all about, you know, I mean, the
hunting season's pretty shortreally, and you think about it
the rest of the year and peoplejust like to look at look at
something on the wall thatreminds them of, you know, their
favorite time of year, huntingseason.

Yeah. Alright. So we have to get back to the
beginning, but let's take aquick break and be right back.

VO (26:42):
Stay tuned to the Ducks Unlimited podcast, sponsored by
Purina Pro Plan and Bird DogWhiskey After these messages.

Alright. Welcome back. I'm here with Jim Hautman
and we had kinda gone off andtalked a little bit about this
year with the duck stamp, but Iwanna go back. When you were
growing up, did you showinterest in art early or not and
always? Or, like, was itsomething Yeah.
Yeah. How did that look?

Well, I mean, we have painting I have paintings
that I don't remember doing fromwhen I was really small. But I
remember going to kindergartenand see, we all painted and drew
in our house. And being theyoungest one, my my stuff wasn't
as good, you know? And Iremember getting to kindergarten
one day and they said, alright.We're gonna paint a a city

(29:19):
scene.
And all the kids got out crayonsand watercolors and and mine
turned out pretty good. I'mlooking around at everybody
else's, and I'm like, hey. Minelooks pretty good. And the
teacher pulled mine aside andliked it. And I'm like, hey.
I'm actually good at something.You know? And I but I didn't
know that growing up because mybrothers and sisters were all

Yep.

Ahead of me. You know? Yeah. So I knew right away
that it was something I like todo and that I was pretty good
at, and surprisingly, I'm stilldoing it, like

Well, I think I've talked about this before just
like I have young kids and buteven for me too as a kid, like
so my background, I stopped. Iwent into art, and I was a fine
arts major at first, I didn'tlike being told what to do, so I
quit that and became an arthistory major. Mhmm. But that

(30:10):
being told by somebody thatyou're good at something that
isn't your parents, like, it hasan effect on kids. Like, when
they when they hear that, like,I feel like it's it means
because it definitely didsomething to me.
Like, I was told that I was goodat it by people that weren't my
parents. Yeah. And then I waslike, oh, okay. Well, I can do
this. This is something and Iwas the youngest too, so I was,

(30:31):
like, wanting to stand out insome way, and I was like, oh,
well, I can be the I can be theartsy one.
Like, that's that's fine.

There you go.

And and so, like, I mean and, obviously, it affected
me because then I went into arthistory and curatorial stuff, so
I don't know. That does have animpact, like, when you're told
you're you're pretty good atsomething, like, then

Yep. But I think some people just naturally
gravitate towards art too. Imean, some people are just

Oh, yeah. A 100%.

You know? I mean, it's not necessarily about
creativity or certainly notabout coordination. It's just
it's it's all about are youvisual and do you do you see
things and and does that makeyou excited to do something
about it, you know?

Yeah. I think so too, and, like, I know like, I
realized, you know, when I wasin school that, like, oh, I'm
good, but I'm not that good, soI'm maybe I'm not gonna, like,
go that avenue, but I loved art.Like, I loved being around it. I
loved seeing it. I I alwayscould tell what was good.

(31:36):
Like, that's another thing.Like, I can I'm and I even can
do it now with, like, thedecoys. I pretty quickly figured
out, oh, this is good and thisisn't good. Like, I can tell,
you know, like, you can seeshape and form and that sort of
thing.

You should apply to be a judge on I've already
tried. I

don't know. I I told Suzanne that I wanted to be
one, so we shall they have tonominate you, I think.

Oh, but you can let them know you're willing to be
nominated.

That's that's fine. Yeah. So we shall see. It's
coming to Memphis next year, somaybe maybe they'll give me a
call.

I heard that. Yeah.

Hopefully, they hear this. I'm like, oh, we
should call her. She's local. Idon't we don't to help we don't
have to pay for her to be there.Yeah.
No.

Well, that'll be fun. I'm looking forward to
that. I'll be Yeah. I'll bethere as the the reigning guy. I
won't be entered, so that thatmakes it more fun when you're
not in in the contest becauseit's a little more relaxing.
It's still pretty intense justto watch.

I'm excited. And it'll be fun to have it here. I
think we're having it here atheadquarters. So, you know,
you'll have lots of like, I'msure people will come that are
in in it, but, like, just thepeople in this office will have,
you know, 200 people that'll beinto it. So, yeah, it'll be
it'll be neat.
I don't think I don't thinkwe've ever done it here.

I don't think you have. No. I mean, they they only
started moving it around in thelast fifteen years or so. It
used to always be at theDepartment of Interior in
Washington, and then theystarted moving it around. But
but I think I think your place

Yeah. It'll be exciting. We'll have to do
something on camera too whenyou're here, so to do another
But one of okay. So you wereartsy. So at what point did you
do the junior duck stamp at all?
Was it did it exist then?

No. That that was around.

So when would you have thought about who did the
duck stamp first? Who, like, whoentered first?

Well, just going back. So, yeah, growing up,
painted this, that, the otherthing, know, just kind of
whatever, not not for money upuntil, you know, late high
school. You know, you'restarting to think about, hey,
I'm gonna have to make a livingat some point. So right about I
was probably about 18, I starteddoing some pen and inks and then

(33:54):
selling a few, like I don't knowthe church had a little show or
whatever. And then not spendinga lot of time at it, and then we
were painting actually, Bob andI were painting houses after,
you know, when I got out of highschool, which is because Joe is
in college.

Right? Yeah. Because he's

a Joe went to different he went to college for
forever. Yeah. He has a a PhD inphysics, and so he was off doing
his thing, and Bob and I werepainting houses and then
painting ducks, and, you know,selling a few enough to keep
buying materials anyway, andthen we started entering duck
stamp contests Okay.

So y'all were doing it together. Okay.

Four. Yeah. Actually, I started first and
then Bob saw me doing it and hethought, well, that looks like
fun. I mean, all the all thematerials were there, so he
started and picked it up rightaway. And then Bob won the first
ducks stamp contest if any ofus.
He won the Minnesota contest in1987, and that was that was
great. I mean, because you neverreally know if you're gonna make

(34:54):
it till you make it. And andthat was just the first big
break, you know. And and whenyou're beating guys like Dave
Moss and Terry Redlin Yeah.

So they were who was there at that time. So it
was, like, Terry Redlin and

Oh, there yeah. He was in it. And, actually, you
know what? He'd won the yearbefore Bob won it, so he was a
judge. They used to have the theprevious So winner that was
great.
And then and then all of asudden, I won Delaware and
Nevada back to back, and thenthe next one I won was

the third You were the youngest at that time.
Right?

Yeah. I was 25 when I won the title.

I guess you were the youngest until Adam Grimm
won.

Correct. Yep. That's a record you can't go

back I'm and you still secretly hoping his
daughter steals it from him.

So It

would it would surprise something. Yeah. I was
little I told him this, and I'mfriends with Adam. I told him
when he won, you know, the yearbefore, like, you know, last
year, I was like, oh, I'm sadyou lost because I kinda was
hoping you would have to competeand she'd beat you.

That wouldn't surprise me. She's serious, and
she's talented.

So I was kinda I was I was just like, I'm a
little sad. Now you have, like,three years off before you have
to compete against her.

Yeah. And maybe she'll win before then too.

So they may have a while, but who knows? Yeah. So,
yeah, you were the youngest. Andthen at that time so what year
was that that you won?

It was 1989 that the contest was. Yeah.

So was it still the same way with like, is now,
like, for careers? Like, whenyou win the stamp, it kinda
changes your your career as awildlife artist?

It it it was more of a factor then.

That's what I thought. That was really what I
was getting at. Yeah.

It it it was, and especially for me because I was,
you know, relatively unknown atthe time. And now, like, people
are like, yeah. Oh, yeah. Youwon again? Oh, yeah.
Yep. How many is that? Three,four, seven? What you know what
I mean?

It's Yeah.

Mhmm. But when you're 25 and you have never won
it and you win it, that wasquite it was quite the deal. I
mean, my phone didn't stopringing. I mean, I would hang it
up. This was pre answeringmachine.
But I would hang it up and Icouldn't walk 10 feet, it would
ring again. It was just insane.And this mostly friends and

(37:24):
people congratulating me, butalso everything newspapers and

Right.

Galleries, and it just it was upending my life,
but in a good way.

Yeah. Because I I understand it more now, like,
how it works now for wildlifeforest, but at that point and
then because you're so youngtoo, like, I'm guessing at that
point, yeah, you're just tryingto win these competitions,
right, so that you can get somemoney so you can continue doing
it. I'm guessing that's thegoal. So after winning the

(37:54):
federal, how does that changeyour, like, focus as an artist?
Like, because, I mean, you havethis time off, you're not gonna
start stop creating, so dosomething similar, or do you how
do you like, as a as an artist,what are you kind of evolving as
once you've gotten that support?

Yeah. I guess I I can't really remember. Mean,
this was a long time ago, but,you know, I mean, there was some
something in me that wanted tokeep doing what I was doing.
Mhmm. But also you you wanna youdon't wanna start copying
yourself.
You wanna branch out. So I'vealways painted a lot of
different subject matters, butbut ducks are probably my

(38:37):
favorite to paint. I mean,there's and there's so many
different species too. It'sgreat and I can never get tired
of it.

Yep. Birds and birds are interesting.

Right. And I I remember what I really liked
about it getting started was thefact that the contest is
anonymous. So when when you'rean unknown person and not good
at, you know, tooting your ownhorn, just be able to do
something and no one would knowwho it was was so appealing
rather than having them look atit and say, well, okay, this is

(39:06):
a nice painting, but who did itand what's their resume and how
old are they? You know, to me,that was the big appeal of the
the duck stamp.

Yeah. And it still is, like, you know, there are
certain, you know, I think someof us out here can pick out
certain people. I mean, I'm notalways good at it. I can get it
wrong too. I can sometimes pickout certain artists, but but I
get it wrong as much as I get itright.
Like because I did not guessBob's this time. Yeah. And, like

Did you guess mine?

I I thought it was yours. I had I was pretty sure I
think I had another one that Iwas, like, maybe this one. Like
Yeah.

Think it

was, like, well, another it was another flying
duck, but I thought so just bythe mostly by the by what was
the word I'm looking for? Like,the layout of it. Yeah. That's
where like, the background isgot closer on the background
than I did on the yeah. Thatother one, was like, I don't
think the background's right.

Yeah. Well, it's because

you have a moss vibe to your background.

Well, I like to I don't try to have them
recognizable either. I, youknow, I

I No. I don't think

people do. I would like to do something that no one
well, and I think that when Iwon with the three geese in
2017, nobody knew that was mine.No. And it was different. And
even one of the judges I knew,and she didn't know it was mine.
She was surprised at the end toit. That was something I really
liked about that. That was afunny one because I had done the

(40:38):
study for that two years priorand it was very different. You
know, again, the smaller birdsflying three of them and I
really liked it. I showed itaround a lot of people and I
just wasn't getting thereaction.
They're like, well, that doesn'tlook like a normal duck stamp.
And and my brother Joe reallyliked it though and I thought,

(41:00):
you know what? I'm not gonna doit. I'm gonna so I did I did
some Canada geese on the waterand they didn't do very good.
And then the next time geesewere eligible, I didn't have
time and I was just gonna resendthe one on the water back in.
And then with four days to go, Ithought, you know what? I always
regretted not doing thatpainting, so I just sat down and

(41:20):
worked straight for four daysand and didn't expect to win and
it won, and there was somethingreally satisfying about that and
the fact that nobody knew who itwas.

Yeah. I get them sometimes. I definitely guess
Joe Swan. I had that one down.Yeah.
Yeah. That one what also lookslike another one he did.

Both of his swans are like, when Joe gets Yeah.
When Joe nails one, I mean, wejust look at it and go, okay.
You're gonna win. You win.

The light on that one was so good. I just yeah. It
was and doing white birds isit's tough, you know, like, make
them look good. But, yeah, Iguess that well, this one, I
couldn't get that many peoplethis time. I thought I had
Rebecca's and I had it wrong.
She was somebody she was adifferent one, and it really
surprised me. Yeah. Because lastyear I had her pegged, and this

(42:10):
year I was like, I had I was wayoff.

Which one was she? Now I can't remember.

She was a wood duck on the water, and she was
towards the end.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. That was nice.

I had hers and Madison's confused. They were
similar.

Madison's was the one standing in shallow water.
Right? Yeah. Yep. I recognizedScott's and

I asked Scott scientific.

Alexander I recognized, and but, yeah, not
as many as normal. I probablyrecognized only 10 or so.

Yeah. And then I had some people down to like a
couple, like, oh, this might bethis person, but this also might
be this person. Yeah. Yeah. Ithink I had you down to two, and
I was like, I think this is his.
And then when it popped uptowards the end, I was like,
it's definitely Jim. Because theother one was the one I was iffy
on, I was like, oh, no. I'mright

this time.

That's interesting, like, you said, how often do you
when you're going into the DUCstamp, do you change do you
change your mind like thatoften, or do you leave it that
late?

No. I I use

It just depends.

I usually start at least a month ahead. And that
that goose one was that was awhole different deal. I think
that's part of why it turned outtoo. I just I had an idea in my
head, so I wasn't changingthings. I was just concentrating
on my idea, and it went reallyfast.
You know, whereas a lot oftimes, like, this year with my

(43:38):
background, I originally had itset on a real calm dead calm
lake with a nice reflectionsand, you know, it but it just
didn't it didn't work. It didn'thave the action, you know, the
birds looked kind of frozen. Andactually, it was Bob's
suggestion. He said, well, whydon't you put waves in there?

And Yeah.

We were driving home from somewhere and he said
that I couldn't stop thinkingabout it. So I got home and just
painted the the the water outand and actually had to do the
waves three times. But that oncethere was waves in there, that
gave the birds action too. So itwas that was a good Yep. That
was a good call on his part.

(44:19):
I'm glad he I'm glad he wasn'tsecond place.

Yeah. That would've been that would've been mean.
How do y'all often, like,consult each other on your
stuff? Like, are you always kindof going back?

Yeah. Pretty much, you know, and more so on the
duck stamps. On the regularpaintings, almost every one I
do, I'll I'll either bring itover to them or email and get
the critique. And that is reallyhelpful, but especially on a
duck stamp because on a duckstamp, any little thing wrong
can sink you. So you want someeyes looking at it to tell you

(44:58):
in case you're you're missingsomething because you may you
look at it so much you can misssomething and then if you put it
away and pulled it out a yearlater, it'd be obvious what you
did wrong.

But Right.

So it's nice when you're working on it to have
some feedback. So, yeah, we'realways and then comparing them
up, that helped too. I remembercomparing mine up to Bob's this
year with about, I don't know,two weeks left, and and his his
kind of blew mine away. This wasbefore the waves and stuff too.
Yeah.
And that just, you know, it justmade me know that I need to do

(45:31):
something because if I can'tbeat him, I'm not gonna win. So
I know I'd better beat at leasthim. And but, yeah, his was
really nice too. I I actuallythought he was gonna win this
year.

Yeah. He's due one, you know, he hasn't had one

in a minute. It hadn't been that long, but

No. He had his last one was a canned goose.

No. He did flying mallards in That's right.

That was the last time I think mallard.

16 or something. Yeah.

Yeah. I just imagine y'all having each other
has gotta be, like, the biggestadvantage.

It's great.

That y'all have. Yeah.

And and when my mom was alive too, she was she was
great at critiquing too because,you know, she kinda looked at it
different than other people did,you know. She just had such an
eye for design and and things,and so she would point stuff out
that no one else would. Youknow? And it would Yeah. You
know?
Something that like, especiallywhen she got older, she'd be

(46:26):
like, well, this this isconfusing. What what's going on
here? You know? And and then youknew, well, that's good to know.
There's something there.
There's a way to see that. Itisn't the way I want people to
see it.

Right.

So even if even if someone can't tell you, I mean,
I I get critiques fromeverybody, you know, the
electrician or the neighbors or,you know, just anybody because
people can see things that youcan't see because you you could
kinda snow blind to the thing.

Yeah. And I think being siblings is well, like,
and then your mom, like, you'renot worried about hurting the
other person's feelings.

Oh, no. No.

No. Like, that doesn't bother that's not you
know, if it's a friend orsomething I mean, eventually, if
you're good enough friends, it'sfine, but, like, siblings, they
don't we don't care abouthurting

the other

person's feelings. Like, it's not a thing.

Yeah. And I learned early on too, you know, if
you're struggling on a paintingor whatever and and someone
starts critiquing and tellingit, and then you start to get
mad or defensive about it. Ilearned early on that that means
they're right and you're wrong,you know? And that's partly why
you're getting mad. So, youknow, even if the the reason

(47:39):
that they say something isn'tworking, you know there's
something there that's that'snot right, and it's just helpful
to know that it needs to bechanged.
So you you kinda go back to thedrawing board and say, what if I
was starting over? Would I do itlike that? No.

Yeah. And that's really good advice, like, in
that they what they're sayingmay not be what you should do,
but there's definitely somethingthat should be done.

Yeah. Well, I had a wood a wood duck painting I was
working on last summer, and ithad three wood ducks standing on
this kind of curvy, snakylooking branch. I wasn't too
sure about it. And severalpeople said, oh, I I like that
branch. And I remember I wastelling that to Joe.

(48:22):
He says, oh, that's not good.The fact that they kept singling
it out and saying they likedidn't mean they like the
painting. You know what I mean?Yeah. And yeah.
So I took it out and and putsomething else in there and it
and it worked. So it's it's evena positive comment can be a

(48:43):
negative comment sometimes.

Yeah. Well, especially when for the duck
stamp, Like, you don't wantpeople there was another one
that was like that this time. Iremember people were saying,
like, they like the branch, andI was like, well, you don't want
the branch to be the focal pointof the duck stamp.

Right.

It's not it's not the branch stamp. It's the duck
stamp. So, like, yeah, you maywanna that's not good.

Yeah.

Yeah. You're right. Because, like, that's that's a
huge thing. That's reallyinteresting. Yeah.
But that relationship y'all haveis I think I think that helps
y'all so much

Oh, for sure.

For success. Yeah.

And I know there are other artists, some artists
that I know, they do have littleartist groups that get together,
and I'm sure that works the sameway. You know, people probably
critique, you know, theycritique each other's paintings
and then whoever's gettingcritique gets mad. Then you have
a chance to get even when theyput their painting up there too,

(49:36):
but it's

That's right.

It's all good. You gotta be able to take it. If
it's taking the meds, then thenit's your fault, your own fault
probably.

Yeah. That was you know, when you grow up and
you're, like, going through art,like like, you know, any art
classes when you grow up, like,in elementary, middle, and high
school. And when I first went tomy first, like, drawing class in
college, and we had to put ourand it was, like, the kind of
drawing class where they would,like, stat like, in the middle
of the room, there would be aplatform, and then there would

(50:07):
just be a bunch of crap. Like,just, you know, like, draw your
angle of this pile of stuff. Andthen you'd have to put them all
up.
And that first critique, I waslike, oh, this is gonna be was
like, no. I've never had to dothis before. Like, this is this
is a new experience. This isgonna be super humbling.

Yeah. Some people can't take it. Some people can't
take it, and they don't showtheir stuff to people like that.
You know?

Yeah. And it's definitely not helpful, you
know, in the end. Yeah. Youdefinitely have to show
yourself. I I've been veryimpressed with some of these
younger duck stamp artists whoare putting everything online,
like, whole process.

That's interesting, isn't it?

It's very vulnerable.

Yeah.

Yeah. Because it is I mean and I talked to I don't
think we talked about this onher episode, but I think I
talked about with Rebecca when Isaw her at Easton and about this
because, you know, she's beenentering for a long time and has
had such growth as an artistover that time. Like, you can
kinda look at all our entriesand just looking at every like,

(51:20):
looking at having your growth bepublished like that, that's
tough.

Yeah. I don't do that. I'm not I'm not on any any
I but, you know, I could see itbeing helpful, though.

Oh, yeah. It's definitely helpful. I think they
get a lot more you know, they'rekinda fast pacing some of the
help that they may not havegotten if they were doing it on
their own. You know, it helpedconnect them to other artists

Yeah.

A little bit faster. But, yeah, it's just
it's vulnerable.

It is.

Yeah. I can't imagine doing that and having
and knowing and then also, youtalked about this earlier, but,
you know, yours is anonymous,like, no one knows who that that
was your painting until the end.Right? But these people, like,
we know who their which onestheir paintings are. Like

Yeah. I know.

That's So we're watching it get judged.

That's a little bit weird too. I I'm not sure how
they get away with that becausethat is kinda counter to the
whole anonymous part. You know?

Yeah. I'm sure they have to like, the judges have if
they have Instagram, they haveto, like, not, like, you know,
turn off that like, thosepeople.

You would hope so. Yeah.

Yeah. I would think so. Yeah. Because you don't want
any sort of, like, favoritebecause that's the great thing
about the duck stamp is that youdon't know who

it is.

Yeah. So there's no favor to do.

It's great.

No. But that's, yeah, that's a really different
what do you think about that interms of, like, promoting the
duck stamp?

Well, I think it's great for promoting it. Yeah.
You know? But it's it's mostlypromoting it to artists, which
is good, you know, but I I wishthere was a way to promote it
more towards collectors andpotential collectors, you know.

(53:14):
Like, I'd love to see more birdwatchers get into the duck stamp
and collect the duck stamp, youknow.
Yep. So that that social media,it it sure can hurt that, but
I'm guessing that most of thepeople that follow that are are
artists that

Yeah. That's a good that's interesting. Yeah. I
didn't think about it that way.I don't know.
I don't know the answer to thatif it's mostly artists or I
don't think it's bird watchers.

Yeah. But I mean, it lead if it leads to PR of any
kinds, you know, that mushroomsout and any any press is good
press like they say.

Yeah. And so which is also interesting because now
you can buy it online. Do y'allstill get for the online
purchases? Does that, like howdoes that work for the artist
now that it's online? Do youknow?

You know, I just I just go old fashioned and just
go into the post office and buymy stamp usually. Yeah.

Yeah. But does that, like, affect so because
for you as like, when you whenthe what do you get just like I
feel like we did this beforewith Joe, but explain to me,
like, what does the artist getwhen after he after he or she
wins the stamp?

Well, the the official prize is a pane of
stamps, so I think that's 20 or25 stamps. They give you a pane
of stamps, and it's usuallysigned by the director of the
fish and wildlife and a bunch ofthe dignitaries. And and that's
that's the only official prize,really, because all all the

(54:50):
money they raise goes towardsHabitat. So the artist doesn't
make anything off the stamp. Ofcourse, it's just through
marketing of the prints andYeah.

But the prints is where y'all make your money

Right.

Do this thing. So, like, One Ducks Unlimited, for
example, like, puts all theprints in the their, like,
package for event package.

Yeah. And and then You make money. And then every
every print that's sold usuallygets at least one stamp,
sometimes two stamps with it. SoYep. But

Okay. Yeah. Okay. That's what I thought. I
couldn't remember.
But, yeah, so it makes it offthe print. So you want like,
that's what was trying to think,like, because hunters knowing
more about it and buying morestamps does not necessarily
because they're gonna buy duckhunters are gonna buy stamps
anyway. They

have to

buy stamps. So but the but the online sale of the
stamp doesn't affect y'all atall. It you're just going
through the print.

Yeah. I think that's true. I don't think
that's a real effect, you know.Yeah. Like, a lot of a lot of
hunters just buy the stampbecause they have to buy the
stamp to hunt, you know.
But there's a lot of themthat'll buy two, one for their
collection and

My dad buys, five for and he does not collect
them, but I don't know why hejust buys, like, robotic fuzz.

Yeah. I I do too.

Just to have them. Yeah. I think he also has them,
like, in case someone shows upand they didn't buy their stamp,
he's like, here you go sign thatone.

Nice. Yeah.

Yeah. Because we take a lot of people hunting, so
I think he does it. But hebecause he says, I already got
you a stamp, I'm like, but Ibought my own stamp.

Well, good. That's more money for Habitat. Yeah.

Yes. But, yeah, he does that. I don't know. He just
buys, like, five of them. I,like, buy mine online, but I get
it shipped to me.
Okay. So what will you do so youhave some promotional stuff
you'll have to do, which youdon't have to go to you may we
talked about this before, Ithink off, but you may not be
going to Easton because ofgovernment shutdown. But what
will you do for the next threeyears? Like, what will you do

(56:43):
like, what would you focus onnow that you you you're not
gonna be doing the duck stamp.So, artistically, what do you
do?

Yeah. Well, they yeah. I'll have some promo of
the stamp for the first year.I'm gonna judge the junior duck,
and we'll do the, you know,bunch of promo. As far as what
am I gonna paint, you know?

Yep. What are you gonna paint?

Don't know. I I have a clean slate right now. I
just finished some canvas backs,and I didn't have anything
started, so I pulled out one outof the back closet that I had
worked on and stopped and it's abobcat. But I don't know. You
know, it's it's hunting season.
I'm heading out to North DakotaSaturday, and, you know, that

(57:24):
might determine what I do next.It just kinda depends on what
moves me. You know? I don't Idon't have any deadlines coming
up right now, so it's kindanice. I can just wait for
inspiration and see whathappens.

Do you still take commission work?

I do. Yeah. Not not a lot. You know? It's gotta be
something that, you know, thatI'm interested in and that I
think I can do a good job of.
You know? When you're startingout, you just have to say yes to
everything, you know. Yeah. Butright now, you know, if it's a
subject matter that I'minterested and I think I can do

(58:00):
a good job of it, I'll do it. Iwill do commissions, but the
next thing I do, I'm not sure.

Scott, I had him on, and do you do what he does?
He says, if he takes commission,he's gotta go hunting wherever
his commission is so he canhunt.

I like the angle. Yeah. Well, and it helps too,
you know, especially

Yeah. I'm sure it does, but I was like, it also is
fun.

You know? I've done some dog portraits too. And

He said that's the thing he hates the most.

You you know? But I always insist that I meet the
dog, you know? Yeah. Becausethey could send you 500 photos,
but you might not get it right.So it's if I do a dog portrait
or something or if I paint acertain place, I need to I need
to see it, I think,

To get the feeling of it. Mhmm. I see that. And I
yeah. I get that with a dog toobecause a dog has especially
retrievers, they have a lot ofexpression, and when you meet
them versus Well,

and their owner knows them so well that, you
know, there may be one littlequirky thing they do with their
eye or whatever that and if youdon't get it right, they're
gonna know, but you aren't gonnaknow. But if you but if you meet
the dog, I think you have a lotbetter chance of of capturing
what it whatever its specialqualities are.

Yeah. I was wondering how that worked. Do
you have, like, the same peoplewho commission stuff? Do you do
a lot of similar, like, work forpeople?

You know, I don't you know, like I said, I don't
do a lot of commissions. Youknow, it just kinda depends on
you know, I don't I don't do alot of shows. I don't do any
marketing, so I'm kinda just

You don't need to at this

here by myself, and if somebody likes my stuff well
enough to track me down, youknow, that's a big compliment
right there. And then if if theyhave an idea I think I can do
justice to, then then I'm in.

Okay. That's yeah. I mean, that's the privilege too
of getting to where you are inyour career. You don't have to

It's nice.

Yeah. You don't have to do everything that
everyone wants you to do. Lastquestion because if I don't,
people will be mad at me. So howdid you feel about the Fargo
mentioned Oh. In your career?
How was that for you?

Jim Hautman (01:00:13):
I thought it was great. I thought the movie was
great, and and it was fun to,you know, be a little part of
it, and we got to go down to theset. And

Katie Burke (01:00:25):
Oh, really?

Yeah. Because they they they had borrowed all our
stuff out of our studio. So thepaintings and the easel, all
that was out of our

Oh, that was all of your stuff.

So they took it all and set up a easel in the studio
set, you know, with just thethree walls. That was really
amazing to walk around thecorner and see that. I was like,
wow. That looks like I actuallylooked more like Bob's studio
than mine, but and then Still.And then the actor that played
the Duck Stamp artist, he cameover and wanted to know all

(01:00:55):
about what it was like, and andand I like love the Cohn
Brothers movies too.

Yeah. Me too. That's what they're like we were
just having, like, a stupidconversation, and I was like,
yeah. They're probably myfavorite.

They're they're

Yeah. Like, directors. Yes.

So They are amazing. Yeah. And then, of
course, we knew them growing uptoo. That's how that all

Oh, really?

Yeah. They were neighbors. You know? They were
about two blocks away, and theywere older than me, so I didn't
know them that well. But theyhung out with with Joe and Bob
and Mark and Amy.
They were all the same age. Soand they were

That's funny.

Were making movies as kids. I remember they made a
movie in the woods right outbehind our house, and Mark was
in it.

Were y'all all so artsy?

Yeah. And so and so that's kinda I think and then
when they they went off to dotheir thing and their mom would
always send them articles, like,we'd win, she'd mail them
articles. And then if they madea movie or something, our moms
would send us the article. Soit's kinda cute really anyway,
so that was cool to see it comefull circle and and get a

(01:02:02):
mention in a movie like that.

Yeah. That's funny. And that makes so much more
sense now, like, that that's whythey mentioned it.

Yeah. Like, how else

would they Yeah. Exactly. I mean, I, like,
remember because I grew up inDucks Unlimited and in, like,
you know, the world ofwaterfowl, and, like, I think
the first time I saw Fargo, Iwas probably, you know, high
school, college, and I was like,I know who they are.

You're probably the only one in the theater who knew
what they were talking about.

I know who they are. And but, yeah, I didn't
realize. It makes so much moresense that y'all grew up, like,
together. Yeah. That makes a lotmore sense.

Well, and then and then they had it like a postage
stamp too. You remember thatthat Houtman's won the Doug's
stamp, but he got the 3¢ stampor whatever.

Yes. We thought that's not a thing.

Told the told those guys, it's like, that's not what
it's like. It's they said, yeah.Yeah. That's not a thing. We
know, but he needed to winsomething, so we had I'm like,
that's fine.
Whatever.

They needed Norm to get his

consolation is

the nicest person in the they're like the nicest
two people in that whole movie,so that's what I

do. I remember when they were first asking about it,
was like, you're not gonna makethis look too ridiculous. Sorry.
Oh, no. Oh, no.

No. It's the most, like, it's like the, like, the
homiest part of It's the yeah.

I remember watching it in the theater, and a couple
people were just cracking up atthat part. And I was just
thinking, wonder why. Why arethey laughing? Like, is it
really that weird of a thingthat we do? I guess it is pretty
weird painting ducks for aliving.
I don't know.

I don't know. That yeah. I didn't that's not why I
did what you did. It's like,there's no 3¢ thing. Well, okay.
Thank you. Thank you forhumoring me with that. I really
had to had to ask. Well, thanksfor doing this. This was really
fun.

Well, thanks for having me. It was enjoyable.

Yeah. When you come for to when you come to Memphis,
we'll have to do it again inperson.

Okay. Yeah. Deal. That's a deal.

Thanks, Jim, for coming on the show, and thanks
to our producer, Chris Isaac,and thanks to you, our listener,
for spraying wetlands andwaterfowl conservation.

VO (01:04:16):
Thank you for listening to the DU podcast sponsored by
Purina Pro Plan, the officialperformance dog food of Ducks
Unlimited. Purina Pro Plan,always advancing. Also proudly
sponsored by Bird Dog Whiskeyand Cocktails. Whether you're
winding down with your bestfriend or celebrating with your
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moment. Enjoy responsibly.

(01:04:38):
Be sure to rate, review, andsubscribe to the show and visit
ducks.org/dupodcast. Opinionsexpressed by guests do not
necessarily reflect those ofDucks Unlimited. Until next
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Ep. 721 - Jim Hautman: A Legacy in Wildlife Art

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep. 721 - Jim Hautman: A Legacy in Wildlife Art