Larry Wetherholt

I came screaming into this world on September 26, 1937 in a house at 1932 East Prairie Street, located in a small industrial town in central Illinois. The name of this fortunate little burg which would forever be known as my birthplace is Decatur, Illinois. I still dwell in this town with my wife of 47 years, Dorothy Elizabeth Wetherholt. All five of our offspring, (four sons and one daughter) live within 10 miles of us. In order of birth they are: Troy Dale (son), Stephen Larry (son), Alan Wayne (son), Tina Rene’ Simroth (daughter), and Eric Christopher (son).
I was born into what today would be considered poverty. Although, I was also fortunate enough to be blessed with a family rich in love. To give you an idea of our circumstances, when my folks were married four years prior to my birth, their estate consisted of a car, a ‘coonhound and a ‘coon! However, shortly after I came along my dad got a job at one of the local factories and we found ourselves elevated to the ranks of the independently poor!
My younger years were spent outside of town in what was referred to as ‘the sticks’. I enjoyed those years. Times were sometimes rough and during World War 2 such luxuries as sugar, meat, anything made of metal, and a whole plethora of other items that we now consider plentiful were either unavailable or rationed. The scarcity of shoes didn’t pose much of a problem though...we only wore them in the winter anyway!
During the war, we would collect milkweed pods to be sewn into life jackets. This was a sticky project since the milky substance would coat your hands and it was hard to wash off.
I began drawing at an early age. There wasn’t such a thing as television then and it was fun to listen to the radio and try to draw pictures of what we thought the characters on the program’s looked like. Comic books were also a good referance source for subject matter.
I never saw an original painting until I was in the 8th grade. An artist had been commissioned to paint a portrait of one of the retiring teachers and he brought it to school to show









































I came screaming into this world on September 26, 1937 in a house at 1932 East Prairie Street, located in a small industrial town in central Illinois. The name of this fortunate little burg which would forever be known as my birthplace is Decatur, Illinois. I still dwell in this town with my wife of 47 years, Dorothy Elizabeth Wetherholt. All five of our offspring, (four sons and one daughter) live within 10 miles of us. In order of birth they are: Troy Dale (son), Stephen Larry (son), Alan Wayne (son), Tina Rene’ Simroth (daughter), and Eric Christopher (son).
I was born into what today would be considered poverty. Although, I was also fortunate enough to be blessed with a family rich in love. To give you an idea of our circumstances, when my folks were married four years prior to my birth, their estate consisted of a car, a ‘coonhound and a ‘coon! However, shortly after I came along my dad got a job at one of the local factories and we found ourselves elevated to the ranks of the independently poor!
My younger years were spent outside of town in what was referred to as ‘the sticks’. I enjoyed those years. Times were sometimes rough and during World War 2 such luxuries as sugar, meat, anything made of metal, and a whole plethora of other items that we now consider plentiful were either unavailable or rationed. The scarcity of shoes didn’t pose much of a problem though...we only wore them in the winter anyway!
During the war, we would collect milkweed pods to be sewn into life jackets. This was a sticky project since the milky substance would coat your hands and it was hard to wash off.
I began drawing at an early age. There wasn’t such a thing as television then and it was fun to listen to the radio and try to draw pictures of what we thought the characters on the program’s looked like. Comic books were also a good referance source for subject matter.
I never saw an original painting until I was in the 8th grade. An artist had been commissioned to paint a portrait of one of the retiring teachers and he brought it to school to show it to us.
I began working 40 hours a week when I was 13. I washed dishes and pealed potatoes for a local restaurant and they payed me ‘under the table’ as we used to say. Wealth was just around the corner! I worked at various jobs all through school and enlisted in the Marines when I turned 17. I spent a total of 8 years in The Marine Corps, with 17 months in the Fleet Marine Corps in the Far East and The First Marine Air Wing and the rest of my time in The First Marine Division, First Pioneer Batallion.
After being Honorably Discharged from the Marines, I took a correspondence course in commercial art from Famous Artist Schools. I married my wife, Liz, and began a series of jobs to support an increasing family. I dug graves for the township cemetery, rode a bike as a messenger, was a silk screen artist, worked in the same factory that my father did, was a short order cook in a restaurant, was a lab technician, radio telegraph operator, commercial artist, and executive art director, to name a few.
I ran my own art studio for four years doing layout, design, illustration and some animation. It was around this time that I became more interested in painting and sculpturing and began showing and selling my work around several states. I also developed a single panel cartoon that I had in several papers and which I eventually published a book of 520 of my cartoon panels that appeared in various newspapers.
In 1976 I left agency work and commercial art in order to pursue a career in fine art , sculpturing and cartooning. Since then I have supported my family with the sales of my work. This is no small accomplishment when you live in a town of less than 70,000 souls!
I am pretty much self taught and I work in all mediums. Sometimes folks will ask me which medium I like best and it’s like asking me which of my kids I like best. I also write humorous articles for The Herald And Review Newspaper here in Decatur.
I credit my faith in my God and Jesus Christ and the loving support of my wife Liz and my kids for being able to enjoy a life of creativity in the arts. I feel very fortunate that I get paid for doing what others have to pay for, for therapy!

I realize this is a very short biography, but I’m going to end it now...my finger is getting tired of punching the keys!

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