Slippery Rock native seeks hunting tales for new book
A Slippery Rock native and artist is hoping his latest project will allow him to share his, and others' hunting memories with an audience.
Matthew Forrest, the son of Larry and Linda Forrest of Slippery Rock, is asking for people to send him their stories of hunting in Western Pennsylvania.
Forrest, an assistant professor of art at Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville, Ga., is also looking for pictures and maps and drawings of old hunting grounds for inclusion in a limited-edition book.
Forrest said, “For years growing up, my grandparents lived outside of Slippery Rock in Slippery Rock Township, and they had an old farm there. I just had really good memories hunting on Wolf Creek, the creek that ran through their property.”
“Deer hunting and small game hunting I was going with my father and my grandfather,” he said.
“Growing up I only bagged one deer, a doe. I don't have any antlers to show for it,” Forrest said, adding he also hunted rabbits, grouse and squirrel.
“My father still hunts. I went hunting with my father, turkey hunting, a year ago,” he said.
Larry Forrest said, “Everybody hunted in the family. Everybody in my generation, if you lived in the country, you hunted.”
“It was always of interest to me to document the history surrounding the farm and make an oral history of growing up hunting in Western Pennsylvania, one of the last states to give people the first day of buck season off,” Matthew Forrest said. “I would like to document that history before it's gone. I just wanted a way to make this into a work of art.”
“I am looking for something that individuals connect with growing up and why they still hunt. They could include maps of the property, pictures of individuals going out to hunt or coming back from hunting.”
“For me, it was just being with my grandfather and just walking through the woods. It was more about just getting out for a walk than the hunting itself. As I got older it was just about spending time with your family,” Forrest said.
His father agreed. “He (Matt) had come back at Christmas time. After Christmas, we did a little stumbling around in the woods because winter small game season was in.”Forrest's method is to make a fine art, limited edition book out of the stories, photos, maps and drawings he hopes to collect.Forrest, who teaches printmaking, will be printing the pages himself.“I will seek inspiration from some of the stories to make screen prints,” he said. “There will be a variety of illustrations. Some will be hand drawn, others computer generated.”He plans to produce five copies of his book, one of which will be part of an exhibition of art in Georgia.“I'm hoping to make enough (books) to donate one back to the local libraries in Butler, Oil City and Slippery Rock,” Forrest said.All contributions will be cited in the book.Forrest said he will be collecting stories from now until the end of May. The prints will be created over the summer.“I'm having an exhibition in September at Georgia College & State University and plan to exhibit the research at this time,” he said.Those wishing to share their hunting stories, pictures or images, should e-mail them to memoriesofhunting@gmail.com. Forrest asked that submissions be under 19 megabytes of information and that handwritten letters, maps and photographs be scanned.<br>
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