August 15 is the last day wildlife artists can enter the Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest. The painting that wins the contest will be featured on the 2022 Duck Stamp. Among the hundreds of entries are at least two from Codington County artists’, Adam Grimm and Tim Taylor.
The Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest results in the painting featured on the stamp all waterfowl hunters 16 and older are required to buy each year. If you are a wildlife artist, and if your painting wins, it can be a game-changer Watertown artist Tim Taylor explains.
“Well, the Federal Duck Stamp is a very sought-after collectible and when you win, you sell prints and that's how you earn money off selling prints and doing remarks on the prints. And then you can sell your original painting,” Tim Taylor says.
Off and on for nearly 30 years, Taylor has entered the contest that was launched in 1934 and has raised more than $1.1 billion for the conservation of migratory bird habitat.
Today, more than 5.2 million acres of migratory bird habitat exists thanks to funds raised by the program. And in a roundabout way, the Duck Stamp is also responsible for Taylor migrating to South Dakota from New Jersey three years ago.
“Because they're all here. This is the Prairie Pothole region. And you got all these little potholes of water everywhere, where the ducks come on their migratory routes, and they breed. And you can find them, well, except for West Coast ducks, you find most of the ducks here,” Taylor says.
Taylor was introduced to South Dakota by his friend, Adam Grimm. The two artists met during a Duck Stamp Art Contest workshop and became fast friends.
“Well, even though Adam is quite a bit younger than me, by 17 years. He's, like my mentor. He's an amazing artist and I've learned a tremendous amount from him. And so, over the years. I would come and stay at his house and I stayed for a couple of months and paint under his guidance. And I've learned a tremendous amount from him. So eventually I just decided to drop, New Jersey and move here,” Taylor says.
Adam Grimm won the Federal contest in 1999. Just in time to quit art school.
“When I went to art college, I wasn't real happy and I kind of butted heads with a lot of the professors because I was doing realistic art and wildlife art, they were more pushing the abstract stuff and my parents wanted me to finish and get a degree from there because they didn't want me to end up, living in their basement. And so, you know, I was frustrated because I felt like I'm wasting a lot of time and money on a lot of things that I don't see how this is going to help in the future. And so, my parents said the only way they would support me leaving the art college early would be if I were to say, win the Federal Duck Stamp Contest. And later that year, I won. So, that was at the very beginning of my junior year of college. And yeah, I'll never forget that day. That was a pretty memorable experience. So, I immediately called my parents and told them I was coming back,” Adam Grimm says.
Grimm says it was his passion for nature and the outdoors that drew him to become a wildlife artist.
“I grew up going any time my dad was going hunting or fishing or anything, he would take me along on those outings. You know, I would see things that were just incredible. And you know, you come home when you're trying to tell your mom or your sisters, or whoever about what you saw and the experiences and it's a hard thing, sometimes to describe, well, I would turn then to my art and I would try to sketch out what it was that I had seen - to kind of try to share those moments, I guess so to speak. It just seemed like a natural coming together of my two interests,” Grimm says.
It was duck hunting that first introduced Grimm to South Dakota. And the Duck Stamp that convinced him to move here.
“So the Duck Stamp Program and my love for wildlife art is really the whole reason why we moved to South Dakota. You know, I grew up like I said, in Ohio, hunting waterfowl in Ohio, which was not that good. And my dad and I came out here with a couple of friends on a hunting trip for waterfowl to this area, the Northeast part of the state here, and it was so incredible, the waterfowling. I didn't know it was even possible to have it like that really anywhere in the country. So, it was just, you know, it was very exciting and I really fell in love with South Dakota on those trips, Grimm says.
Grimm won the Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest for the second time in 2013 – the same year his daughter, Madison, then 6, won the Jr. Duck Stamp Contest.
“I don’t think I had any idea what it really meant to win that contest,” Madison Grimm says.
Today Madison is 15. Like her dad, she is a two-time contest winner. She won the Jr. Duck Stamp Contest a second time in 2020. The Grimm family lives in Wallace, a community that is home to many wetlands and Waterfowl Production Areas funded by Duck Stamp dollars. A fact that isn’t lost on Madison Grimm.
“There's so many amazing wetlands around here that are Waterfowl Production Areas and everything. And we've hunted some of them and it's just really cool to know that like winning this contest and the money that is generated from it goes to help save ducks and give them a good spot to nest and live. I love like going out there and just seeing how many there are,” Madison Grimm says.
Because she won in 2020, Madison is not eligible to enter the contest again until 2022. In the meantime, she is cheering on her dad, Adam and godfather, Tim Taylor.
For links to artists' websites and information on how you can Livestream this year’s Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest here at sdpb.org
LINK TO DUCK STAMP WEBSITE: https://www.fws.gov/birds/get-involved/duck-stamp.php
Tim Taylor: www.timtaylorstudios.com
Adam Grimm: www.adamgrimm.com
Madison Grimm: www.madisongrimmart.com