Winter 2016 Issue Featuring a Cover Story on:
Michael Frederick Blaser, Signature Member of the American Society of Marine Artists, Bettendorf, Iowa
Born in Iowa in 1947, Blaser had a demonstrated interest in drawing from the beginning – and boats in particular. Following high school, he went to college but enlisted in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, returned to join a commercial art studio in Chicago and then joined John Deere’s Advertising Department. However his love of the sea was resurrected when he witnessed the Tall Ships Bicentennial event in New York in 1976. That led to a successful career as an illustrator for various East Coast yachting magazines where he met ASMA Fellow Don Demers, known for his paintings of historic Atlantic sailing vessels. Soon it dawned on Blaser that he grew up on and was on top of a rich maritime heritage of his own: the inland rivers of America. He returned to Iowa and began to build the reputation he is known for today, a preeminent artist and historian of 19th and 20th Century American inland river vessels.