The Story Behind Goldwing
This was originally painted for the cover of my 2003 calendar, which was titled DRAGONS & MYSTICS in spite of my protests. Up until that point, I’d only done 14 dragon paintings in 30 years—about 4% of my work.
Throughout my career, I tried to avoid being pigeonholed as an artist by taking diverse assignments from science fiction to horror. Yet the publisher here insisted on labeling me as a “dragon artist!”
Additional images from GOLDWING
Editor’s Note: Careful observers will notice that the figures accompanying the dragon changed from the version printed in the 2003 calendar. The woman in blue is obviously Michael’s wife Audrey Price. The other is her good friend Patti Anello, the eventual owner of the painting. I recently coaxed out of Audrey the story behind that change, which happened circa 2012. I'll leave it to her to tell their story.
Art is Life
Patti was an arty girl who smoked in the bathroom. She always wore black clothing, nylons, and dark pointy glasses. She was in my Honors English class, but it was like we were from different worlds. Even though she sat in front of me our senior year, we didn’t talk.
Then one day in class the topic turned to how great artists are affected by the times they live in. Does their art reflect what’s going on in the world or is life itself art? Patti argued the latter, of course, and later inscribed that line in my yearbook as a reminder of the conversation.
I had no idea what happened to Patti after high school because we weren’t friends. It was decades later that we connected by chance when she wandered into the Glass Onion Gallery, my retail art and frame shop.
I was occupied with a customer when she came in and started browsing the paintings. I wondered if the woman with wild hair might be her. She must have been thinking along the same lines as she came around the corner and asked, “Audrey?”
Patti explained that her mother had an appointment at the optometrist next door when she got bored and wandered in. Distracted, she asked, “How do you have all these Michael Whelan paintings here?”
“Well, Patti, it may be a shock,” I said. “But I grew up and married Michael Whelan.”
We got to chatting. She was living in Santa Fe and was a nurse. Her mother still lived locally, so every time Patti came home, we would get together. We became close friends and reminisced on how much time we had wasted because we never got to know each other in high school.
One year, Patti flew out from New Mexico for a convention in the Atlanta area where Michael and Brandon Sanderson were guests. We were showing the cover painting for The Way of Kings. Patti had family nearby and used them as an excuse to fly out to see us.
It was like that for years. We kept up as friends until she passed from cancer in 2018.
Patti was a hoot all the way through, really funny and different. I feel so fortunate that I didn’t waste my whole life not knowing her. She bought the painting because she liked dragons so much and truly loved Michael’s art.
Patti asked that the painting be returned to us, and it came back in 2019 when we attended the opening of the Korshak Collection exhibition at the South Bend Museum of Art. We were so impressed with the museum and staff—particularly their efforts to engage with their community—that we donated the painting to the museum. We knew that Patti would have loved that too.
She lived a life true to the words she wrote in my yearbook.
Audrey Price
Weekly Art Recap
Nightfrost - a breath of the fantastic for the 2011 holiday card
Woodland Peace - providing the light for brighter days for the 2008 holiday card
Northern Lights - a wizard paints the sky for the 2005 holiday card
Balance - a reminder to live before the inevitable end that comes in life
Chanur’s Homecoming - cover for C.J. Cherryh
Steppin’ Out - a concept for The Year’s Best Horror Stories that became an album cover for Intranced