Squirting on the Middle Fork of the Salmon

I was born in 1958 in Hillsboro, Oregon, and spent my first 15 years in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Family outings and fishing trips with my Uncle David Rich and my brother Todd led to a deep and lasting connection to the outdoors. My grandmother, Lola Hopkins, was an artist later in her life and my father, Richard F. Harrington, entertained us with his drawings. His circus trains were particularly noteworthy. My mother, Jeanne, encouraged us all to try as many things as we could, and still wonders if she didn't overdo it with me. Fishing, baseball and drawing were my primary interests.

A family move to Western New York when I was sixteen did nothing to change my interests, though I was greatly relieved to find out it wasn't one big New York City suburb. I graduated from the State University of New York at Geneseo in 1982, majoring in business and studio art, and spent an equal amount of time chasing trout around local streams with a fly rod. It wasn't until a couple years later, during an apprenticeship with Richard Beale, a wonderful painter and teacher, that I realized I would pursue a career as a painter.

Rivers and streams first captured my imagination when fishing with my Uncle David. Fishing led to canoeing, kayaking, hiking, snowshoeing; spending as much time outside as possible. Reading the work of authors Barry Lopez, Richard Nelson, Jim Harrison, Tom McGuane, Harry Middleton, Rick Bass, David James Duncan, Cormac McCarthy and others helped me to further explore and define my relationship to the land. After years of working as an illustrator, using my free work time to paint any number of subjects, it wasn't until my mid-thirties that I began to define for myself what my work is about.

In a culture that increasingly separates us from the natural world, my interest is in how we relate to it, how it lives in our minds and memories, and can provide a sense of belonging, of connection, of home.

My family, my folks, Richard and Jeanne Harrington, and my sisters Ann Marie, Leslie, Cindy, and Amy, and my brother Chris, have been a constant source of love and support. My children Emily, Elizabeth, and Todd fill my life with happiness, pride, and gray hair. Darby Knox, a fine writer and teacher, is my best friend, my buddy, my goddess, and fortunately for me, my wife. Molly and Finn take me for a walk every day, and Poe Lebowsky keeps the mice at bay. We live in South Lima, New York a small farm town near the Finger Lakes area of Western New York that has as many dogs as people.

I think of my brother Todd every day.

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