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92-year-old artist documenting Louisiana architecture one drawing at a time
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BATON ROUGE - At 92 years old, Stan Routh is still doing what he loves: combining architecture with art to capture memories.
"I'm trying to record Louisiana architectural history with a pen, or a pencil, or a brush or a combination instead of a photograph," Routh said.
At his booth inside the Mall of Louisiana, you'll find over 5,000 works of art that are sorted by town, city or parish. Over seven decades, Routh has traveled to nearly every nook and cranny of the state and has drawn what he sees.
Routh's collection captures buildings as they were at the time, and many of the places he has drawn are no longer standing. This preservation of architectural history is what his wife Martha Lee says makes his work so special.
"So often people will say 'I gave this...print to my grandfather and he cried and said it's the best present he's ever gotten,'" she said.
Routh has always been an artist at heart, but his career didn't start that way.
He started as an architect, graduating with a degree from the University of Illinois in 1956. After serving two tours with the Army Corps of Engineers, Routh settled down and started an architecture firm in Louisiana.
"Being an artists wasn't a very good way to make a living if your parents were Depression-era people, so architecture was the closest thing to art," Routh said.
He says his serious artistic work began when the Iberville Parish Bicentennial Commission asked him to draw some illustrations of parish sites for a fundraising project. Since then, Routh has earned hundreds of awards for watercolor, drawing and mixed media art.
For the last 24 years, Stan has sold his art out of the booth on the first floor of the Mall of Louisiana between Zara and the new coffee shop. His wife helps him sell the artwork, along with their son's paintings centered around Cajun culture and LSU sports, during the holiday season.
The Rouths will be at their house every day until the Sunday after Christmas. Stan Routh's artwork can also be seen and purchased from his studio at 5203 Antioch Blvd. He also takes requests and can turn any old photo into an architectural masterpiece.
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