oni Massey-Wheeler (front) poses with the book she illustrated with the two authors, (back, l-r) Barry and Julie Clock. Submitted photo

By Brian L. Gray

It’s no simple task being self-reliant as an artist.

Toni Massey-Wheeler is no stranger to that feeling. A Mandan High School graduate of 1993, Massey-Wheeler attended college and majored in art, but soon found out after graduating that it isn’t easy for artists to make a living around this area.

So she returned back to school to study teaching. After receiving that degree, Massey-Wheeler began teaching at a one-room school in Sweet Briar, which she did for 10 years.

For the last two years, she has been teaching kindergarten in Bismarck, and being married to her husband, Gary, and raising two children, Scout, 7, and Pip, 3, leaves Massey-Wheeler with very little time to pursue her art.

On top of it all, she was also crowned Mrs. North Dakota this year, and had just returned from a two-week trip to the national crowning of Mrs. America, which took place in Tucson, Ariz.

“I still love to do art, but I don’t have the time to do it. And there’s not much money to be made there,” she said.

But a few months ago Massey-Wheeler was offered a chance to give her artistic endeavors an outlet. She was asked to illustrate a children’s book, entitled “First Go Round.”

The book is written by two authors from Portland, Ore., and follows the story of two young children who watch a rodeo from a distance. Their imaginations take over and they begin to create adventures in their minds of themselves riding in the rodeo, to the thunderous applause of the crowd.

The story is loosely based on a nationally known rodeo that takes place each year in Oregon, the Sisters Rodeo. The rodeo was the location of the famed story of 24-year-old rider Lane Frost, who was paired with the bull Red Rock, the previous year’s World Champion Bull. Frost rode the bull seven times, getting bucked off three times and riding him the full 8 seconds four times. Both Frost and Red Rock are now in the Rodeo Hall of Fame today, and their pairing during that rodeo at Sisters became the basis for the film “8 Seconds.”

One of Massey-Wheeler’s illustrations that are featured in the book, “First Go Round.”

The book was published in late May, just in time for this year’s Sisters Rodeo, which takes place in June. This gave Massey-Wheeler and the two authors, Barry and Julie Clock, an opportunity to promote the book and do book signings.

Massey-Wheeler said one of the challenges was drawing the two young characters in the book in a specific way. The characters were based on children known by the authors.

But where she had direction in how to draw her illustrations, she was given full liberty in what to draw. The book, 36 pages, required 18 illustrations, and Massey-Wheeler determined what kind of artwork would be drawn.

Her knowledge of education, she said, helped in choosing what to draw. “We split up the pages for kids, going between illustrations and the story, because being a teacher, I understand the attention span of children,” she said.

Massey-Wheeler is the cousin of Julie Clock, one of the authors, who knew about her love for drawing and approached her with the invitation to make illustrations for the book.

Massey-Wheeler said it took about three months to create the illustrations. She said it was an enjoyable experience to work on a project like this, despite having to handle a few challenges that came her way. She said one difficulty was figuring out how to draw a horse in detail. Living in a rural area with a horse ranch, she said, “I found myself staring at our two horses for long periods of time, studying them up close so I could figure out how to draw them.”

The book’s distribution is beginning to take shape. They are now being sold across the country, and will soon be available in Mandan. A few locations selling the book include LaVon’s Hallmark and Thrifty White Drug.