Satchmo By: Karl Soderlund

"My whole life, my whole soul, my whole spirit is to blow that horn."

The "Ambassador of Jazz" is, of course, made up of trumpets as a background. Louis Armstrong toured the world under the sponsorship of the US State Department with great success and he played until the day he died. The nickname Satchmo or Satch is short for Satchelmouth (describing his embouchure). In 1932, Percy Brooks greeted Armstrong in London with, "Hello, Satchmo!", and it stuck.

After you have found some of his band names and a few top songs you might come across the "Star of David". As a child growing up in New Orleans he was taken in by a Jewish family and treated as one of their own. Armstrong wore this pendent the rest of his life and wrote a book about what he learned from them: "How to Live - Real Life and Determination".

Other symbols of his life represent his use of laxatives as a means of controlling his weight. He advocated to personal acquaintances and in the diet plans he published under the title "Lose Weight The Satchmo Way". He would often hand out samples of Swiss Kriss to anyone that would listen including members of the British Royal Family.

In my paintings the subjects are iconic in who they are or what they represent.  However, the real story is what is revealed within the painting.  I use representational symbols to create scenes within paintings to tell the story of the subject.  Like a puzzle, the closer you look, the more symbols you will find.