Gustave Baumann (1881 1971) began his career as a commercial artist in Chicago. A craftsman by nature, in 1905 he turned his hand to traditional woodcut printmaking. Five years later he joined other artists in the hill country of Brown County, Indiana, where he pursued his goal of creating "good pictures at low cost." He left Indiana in 1917 but never lost touch with his modest beginnings or his desire for a simple life. Written when he was nearing seventy.