GEORGE LINN BLAND, JR. (GBJR)

     Though this painter is an octogenarian nearing ninety, his style is far removed from the primitive approach employed by the late Grandma Moses. Just five or six years before American Abstract Expressionism burst upon the scene, he graduated in the class of '40 with a BFA in the College of Fine Arts at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University). The faculty, though presenting a thorough basic training in life, still life, anatomy and perspective, they were quite advanced in what was then generally termed as "modern" or "abstract" art, communicating to their students the concepts offered by such great painters as Picasso, Matisse and the great teacher, Hans Hofmann. 

     After working for a short period as giftware designer for The American Art Works, Coshocton, Ohio, he enlisted in the USCG at Cleveland and was sent to Manhattan Beach Training Station where he became a member of the famous U.S. Coast Guard Band, a unit filled with great musicians hailing from such groups as Benny Goodman, Stan Kenton, Tommy Dorsey, Les Brown, Vincent Lopez, the New York Philharmonic, NBC Symphony, etc. This great organization played for many war bond rallies and parades, recorded a number of concerts and broadcasts. During the three years he was stationed at Manhattan Beach, Bland pursued the arts displayed in The Big Apple - everything from drama , ballet, and opera to jazz, musical shows, painting and sculpture. Along the way, mainly through his acquaintance with John Martin, dance critic of the NY Times, he met such luminaries as Lincoln Kirstein, Agnes DeMille, Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Isamu Noguchi, Jacob Lawrence, Norman Bel Geddes, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and many others in the field of fine arts.

     In early '47 the band was broken up into units and shipped out on Army transports. During the last six or seven months of his service, Bland served aboard ship in all theaters of war, the American , European and China-Burma-India Theaters. During that period he sailed around the world twice, spending short leaves in Australia, India, France and England.

     He Worked as an industrial designer in NYC for two years, after which he returned to WV in'47 to take care of his aging parents. He was employed by The Citizens bank of Weston where his father was president. After 35 years in the banking business where he became CEO, he retired in '82. He is the grand nephew of the founder of the local Presbyterian Church, as well as the grandson, one of the founders of St Paul's, Thomas Bland III. He has been quite active in both denominations, a ruling elder in the former, and a chorister, lay reader, chalice bearer, vestryman and historian in the latter. On the diocesan level he was a Bishop's man, served on the Standing Committee, Key man of the Deanery, Diocesan Council, Nominating Committee for Bishop, all under the Fourth Bishop of WV, The Rt Rev Wilburn C. Campbell. 

     For the past few years Bland has been a prolific painter. From time to time he will paint a landscape or still life just to satisfy local friends and family. But his real love is non-objective or abstract-expressionist styles. He favors such people as deKooning, Pollock, Motherwell, Joan Mitchell, Elaine deKooning, and many others of the same school.

     Oh yes—and between paintings, Bland is writing a semi-autobirographical novel titled An Octogenarian's Tale.