In 2001, Ill. Mel Tillis, 33°, Grand Cross, made available a limited edition print of his original oil painting, Masonic America, with all profits from sales going to the Southern Jurisdiction’s RiteCare Childhood Language Program. While at the Mel Tillis Theater in Branson, Missouri, former Grand Commander C. Fred Kleinknecht, 33°, asked Bro. Tillis to make a painting as a tribute to Freemasonry in America. What follows is a description of the creative process in Bro. Tillis’ own words from the March 2003 Scottish Rite Journal.
Weeks went by after the Grand Commander made his request while I racked my brain trying to come up with something original, but nothing would come. I began to feel like I had bit off more than I could chew. After all, most artists (including painters) had to go through deep depression, go hungry, or drink themselves out of it in Paris to come up with any vision worth painting. I wasn’t depressed, I wasn’t hungry, nor was I drowning with drink in Paris. I was in Branson, Missouri, doing two shows a day six days a week with no artistic vision in sight.
One day, while watching the History Channel airing a documentary on George Washington, an idea struck me. I remembered he was a Mason and, of course, our first President of the United States of America. I began to do a little research, and from my Masonic Bible I read the names of 14 others who were Freemasons and Presidents of the United States of America.
A vision was beginning to come together in my mind—a picture of all the early American Masons who pioneered this great country alongside non-Masons and made America what it is today, the land of the free and home of the brave. I would call my original painting Masonic America.
I thought of the wheat belt stretching all the way from central Texas to central Alberta, Canada, and envisioned its endless waving fields of golden wheat and all the Masonic Lodges scattered between here and there. Thus, the two stalks of wheat in the painting.
The Square and Compasses is the symbol of all Freemasons. My Masonic Lodge in Branson presented the one in the painting to me when I completed the requirements to become a Master Mason.
The painting’s portrait of President George Washington reminds us that he was a great President, unparalleled in courage and service to his country, and, as I said, he was a Mason.
The flag, “Old Glory,” represents all the 50 great states in this beautiful land we call America. I found an old flag in an antique shop I was browsing around in one day. I asked the old man, who was watching my every move, how old the flag might be. He said, “The best I can figure is about 60 years.” And it looked like it, too. It was just what I wanted for Masonic America.
The mandolin is representative of the endless songs and wonderful music contributed by pioneer Masons from the beginning of our country to this very day-men like Roy Acuff of the Grand Ole Opry, the wayfaring stranger Burl Ives, the singing cowboy Gene Autry, and pickin’ and a-grinnin’ Roy Clark. Each was or is a 33° Freemason and a friend of mine.
The Holy Bible represents “the rule and guide of our faith” in practice and my belief in God. Way back in the early 1960s, Burl Ives and I did quite a bit of sailing down in the Bahamas on his sailboat. From time to time, I would ask Burl about something or another, and each time he would tell me, “Read the King James version of the Bible.” I just quit asking him anything and read the Bible from then on. The Bible is a great part of my life.
The cotton bolls and stems in the painting represent the Southland of America where cotton was king and the blues were born through such great Americans as Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, “Gate Mouth” Brown, and let’s not forget Elvis Presley in his hit song “You Ain’t Nothing but a Hound Dog.”
The old ball and flint rifle and powder horn represent pioneers such as Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, Lewis and Clark, and all the others who ever came face to face with an angry bear in the great Smoky Mountains of east Tennessee, the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, or the High Sierras of western Nevada. A lot of those pioneers were Masons.
The painting’s candle represents the gift of light and the matches the gift of fire. Both are blessings from and are gifts of God.
I guess you can say the pickles sitting on the shelf in that old Mason jar (no pun intended) are as much a part of Americana as the patented medicine bottle (Dr. Grover’s Chill Tonic) setting on the same shelf. I found an old copper kettle and said to myself, “This is a must for the painting.”
Last, but not least, I added a jug, or “Jimmie John” as some would call it. It was always kept around the house in convenient places or in the cool waters of a well or a nearby spring, sometimes filled with apple cider or, sometimes, something even stronger. Oh! I almost left something out. The cow or buffalo hide on the table represents the great herds of buffalo that once roamed the grassy plains of the Midwest in great numbers. Now it’s mostly cattle and some antelope that graze on these grasses.
Now that my vision was complete, and I had gathered all the pieces I needed for the painting, I loaded them all up and headed for the PaintBox Studio, the little art studio where I take my art lessons. I have two art instructors—Marcia Hamlin, the owner of the PaintBox, and Chuck Wilkins, sort of a free-spirit type of guy. I piled all my treasures on one of the tables and told them I was going to paint an original for the House of the Temple in Washington, D.C. They were as excited as I was about the project. All had a hand in placing things here and there where we thought they best balanced the setting.
Finally, it was time to put something on canvas. Chuck is good at laying out objects on canvas, and it wasn’t long before he had me applying paint with different strokes here and there. Masonic America was coming to be. It took, what with me doing two shows a day, about three months to complete. I was instructed all the way, first by Chuck and then by Marcia. I surely could not have completed Masonic America without their guidance.
Marcia eventually moved her PaintBox Studio over to my theater where she taught her students and also had a gallery where her paintings and those of some of her more gifted students were on display. We let Masonic America hang on display in the gallery for about eight weeks or so to let it dry. Then I took it to Springfield, Missouri, where I ordered a thousand prints made. We started selling the prints shortly thereafter. Without even advertising, we sold 150 prints. The original painting was first proudly displayed in the Grand Commander’s office in Washington, D.C., but it is now on tour at galleries and art shows all over our great nation.
The prints, each personally signed by me, are now available online at www.meltillis.com or by sending a check ($250 per print, plus $25 s/h per print) payable to Scottish Rite Foundation, S.J., USA, to: Mel Tillis, P.O. Box 305, Silver Springs, FL 34489-0305, or by calling 352-694-4900. VISA and MasterCard accepted. All monies raised by the sale of these prints go to our Southern Jurisdiction’s RiteCare Childhood Language Program dedicated to assisting our youngest citizens learn to speak, to hear, and to understand. Thank you for supporting this great philanthropy!
