Sketching statues on the State House lawn today, I found myself drawn to Major General John Stark’s defiant stance beneath the falling maple leaves…

As I drew, a boisterous school group passed through the plaza, and I heard a weary teacher saying, “Tommy, what did I just tell you?  Don’t try to be DIFFERENT, just GET with the GROUP!”  as she corralled her students towards the waiting bus, on whose license plates was embossed John Stark’s immortal advice: “LIVE FREE OR DIE”!

28 August 1728
8 May 1822