Day 18 - A Few of My Favorite Evolutionists

As a young boy in the early 1970's, I remember seeing certain dinosaur books that absolutely mesmerized me. The artwork in them was so interesting and fantastic. Like most boys of that age, dinosaurs were already interesting to me, but the dinosaur artwork of a few certain artists just gave me a feeling I will never forget. I just had to see more!

The first book I remember was Prehistoric Animals, published in 1971. It was one volume in the Bantam Book series Knowledge through Color. I don't believe I ever owned a copy of that book, but I remember every time my family would visit the Ben Franklin store in downtown Marquette, Michigan, I would gravitate over to the book section and find that book. I paged through that book over and over and reviewed the images in my mind on the way home from the store. I don't know who that artist was, but whoever you are or were, you made a young boy love dinosaurs.

Another book that brings back memories is Dinosaurs and More Dinosaurs. I ordered this book through a book club at school. It was illustrated by George Solonevich. His black and white illustrations had such a cool texture to them and the dinosaurs displayed a wonderful creepy monster quality. I still own a copy of this book.

The Golden Exploring Earth book, Dinosaurs, was another I purchased through the book club at school. A number of different artists illustrated that book. It's funny that I don't recall any of the information about dinosaurs from these books. I know I read each one of them, but it's the images that are burned into my memory.

And two dinosaur artists that still fascinate me to this day are Charles R. Knight and Rudolf Zallinger. Other dinosaur books that I thoroughly enjoyed had lots of their paintings in them. Rudolph Zallinger painted a famous mural called The Age of Reptiles for the Yale Peabody Museum. I obtained a poster copy of that, again through the school book club. And today, every time I see an image of that mural somewhere,  I'm transported back in time. Not millions of years mind you, but it does take me back about four decades! I came across a poster of that mural at a garage sale a couple of years ago and almost bought it.


Today there are so many amazing images of dinosaurs available practically everywhere that it's probably very difficult, if not impossible for a child today around the ages of 8-10 to know what a big deal it was for me to have access to the art in those books, but they were the start of something big in my life. And even though I now disagree very strongly with the worldview taught by these books and images, it was through them that seeds were planted in me that grew into an appreciation of both dinosaurs and art. And eventually that  played a part in leading me to where I am and what I do today. So I am thankful for those evolutionary artists. The God of Creation used artwork that has most likely turned many away from Himself as a special blessing in my life!