This site has been in the making for over a year. Last winter, I spent nearly two months scanning in all of Wally's slides, adjusting them in Photoshop accordingly so they would appear on the screen as they do in person. Anyone who has spent any time archiving images for a web site will understand what a painstakingly tedious process this can be, especially with works that number over 200 in all and have spanned over a period of sixty years. There were slides missing that had to be tracked down, and many of the slides that did exist were not in good enough condition for publication. Still, I did what a could and managed to capture a good percentage of the images. I even managed to put together the skeleton of a web-site, grouping thumbnail sized images into clickable tables that would enlarge if the viewer so desired. Then, before I had the chance to back everything up, the impossible happened: my hard-drive crashed and I lost nearly everything.

        Needless to say, I was disheartened as my own life resumed its seasonal pace and the promise of a Wally Hedrick web site diminished as the days wore on. Had I been completely satisfied with the results of my first attempt, this chance occurrence might not have discouraged me. I might have found a way to carry out my vision late into the nights, creating a venue to view Wally's works in an interesting environment. But the static nature of the pages with images sidled up to one another, did not do justice the largeness of the work.

      I use the word "large" not only to describe the size of the paintings, most of which are over 6 feet tall and 5 feet wide, but also to explain the complexity of each piece and the energy which each exerts. Moreover, even the simplest of color structures could not be compressed into small, quick-loading images without demolishing the essence of the work.

     Since it was impossible to compress the images without sacrificing the quality of the work, I decided to do something usually frowned upon by web developers, and that was to create dynamic pages that would take some time with slower connections to download. The concept is for you, the viewer, to see the pieces the way a student might see them in an art history class. You might sit before the screen in a darkened room while the professor flashes an image up onto the screen and relays the details of each piece, including size and date and medium. Then, if you wish to see a painting in more detail, you can click on the title and wait for the enlargement to appear.

       I hope you will be patient in waiting for the images in the galleries to appear. I tested the downloads on my less than 56K connection, and they didn't seem unreasonable. If your connection is slower still, you could open up a new browser, take yourself back to the opening page,and move your cursor in swirls and waves and other configurations. You could lose yourself in the red butterflies of the words. I believe the wait will be worth it.

     I must also mention that this site is a work in progress. I will be adding more galleries every few days. I thought it important to get some of the work out as soon as possible rather than wait until I have everything documented. I hope you will check back periodically to view the work.                                                                                                                             --Catherine Conlin, December, 2001