Live Every Second - Original

• Original (Oil) - 30" x 40" - $22,500

Message from the artist:

I am really torn about Theodore Roosevelt. I love him and really really don’t like him at the same time. He was the start of the Progressive party, but he was a bulldog, a man’s man, and his love and hope for America was so great. He got screwed up on some of the science of the day, but he was always smiling, happy, just enjoying every moment that life had to offer.

One of my favorite Roosevelt stories is the assassination attempt on his life in Milwaukee.

On October 14, 1912, Roosevelt was scheduled to deliver his acceptance speech as the Progressive Party’s nominee when a local saloonkeeper, John Flammang Schrank, shot Roosevelt in his chest.

Luckily for Roosevelt, his metal eyeglass case and the 50-folded pages of his hand-written speech blocked the bullet from entering his lungs, lodging in his muscle near his ribs. (We have the very glasses and folded speech that saved Roosevelt’s life as a part of our museum collection.)

Instead of going to the hospital, Roosevelt stood up, put on his jacket to cover up the blood-stained shirt, and delivered his speech. His opening comments to the crowd were, "Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot—but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.”

The Bull Moose party was born, with the iconic Bull Moose himself as its fearless leader.

Teddy Roosevelt lived every second of his life to the fullest, a reminder for all of us to do the same.