These were to be cloth figures (of specific size and weight of course) to be part of the permanent White House collection. They were also due in October!

The hard part was picking one person worthy of the title of "nation's treasure." I love history, and research is an important part of my process. How do I pick one person, a person that other artists may not do?

I decided to portray someone marginalized in our culture.

The Boston Massacre was one of those flash points in history that everybody has heard of. Even though it was a small "incident" (not even as significant as "Kent State"), it was perfectly timed to be used by Paul Revere and other "Sons of Liberty" to fire up the people against the British. One of the first to fall was Crispus Attucks, a runaway slave who had become a seaman.

Crispus Attucks is one of those names that lives in the far recesses of our adult brains -- if we ever heard of him at all. We don't know what he looked like. There is a description of him in a Boston newspaper as an escaped slave with a bounty on his head.

So, I decided to portray the Revolution's first black martyr dressed in what seamen wore at that time, and I gave him a sailor's braid.

Later, I was pleased to see that Crispus Attucks was mentioned specifically in the opening letter of the White House tour brochure from Bill and Hillary.

And I could see him there, Crispus Attucks, on the tree, right over Bill's head in the 8x10 Christmas photo!