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THE NORTH COAST TIMES EAGLE, FRIDAY, 21 MARCH 1980
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A H itch le ss H ik er
Once or twice a year William Michael Schuster packs
his sketch books and pancake pan into an old yellow
Volkswagen bus and heads for the Oregon coast. Gener
ally he pops in on friends, scattered from Coos Bay to
Astoria, often after midnight, and for days or weeks aft
erward he fills the sketchbooks with drawings and water-
colors. He usually goes back home when he runs out of
paper or paints or when his wife catches up with him.
Schuster has been an artist almost all his life, though
he turned professional only five years ago. He works in
various media; with oils, watercolors, acrylics and tem-
pra as well as with pen and ink, charcoal and pencil. He
is a veteran of the Vietnam war, landing in Da Nang with
the first Marine units in 1965, and sickened by the war,
was an early member of the Vietnam Veterans Against
the War. He has been a log truck driver, executive of an
employment agency, salesman and rent-a-cop. He has
lived in the Pacific Northwest most of his life and cur
rently lives in Vancouver, Washington.
He paid his most recent visit to the coast a couple of
weeks ago, pounding on the Times Eagle door after mid
night. For days he wandered down to the beach or drove
up into the mountains and spent the daylight hours, which
were usually accompanied by wind and rain, scribbling
Wreck of the Alvin R'
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