Original subtitles

I've been painting windows since I was 15.

So, 36 years.

I've painted as many as 150 stores

in a single month and a half.

I do signs. I even do vinyl signs.

I paint murals.

And I'm paid a lot of money painting Santa Claus.

So I'm actually in the art field,

but I'm not doing what I really wanna do.

The ideal goal-- just like the waiter wants to be an actor--

is to actually just paint what you wanna paint.

I had seen "Wildlife Art" magazine

and it had an article in there

about this contest where you could win a million dollars.

So I thought, "Well, that's what I wanna do.

I wanna enter that."

But I didn't know a thing about ducks.

There's definitely something funny about ducks.

They're just funny animals.

So tell people you paint ducks for a living,

you get a whole range of reactions.

The maintenance guys would walk by

and watch me and they say, "What are you doing, man,

sitting in the mall in the middle of the night

painting a duck?"

I said, "I'm entering a duck stamp contest."

"A what?"

I would liken it to, like, winning "American Idol."

Being center stage on a national level.

This is, like, the Super Bowl

or the World Cup of wildlife art.

The Federal is the big kahuna.

There's no other thing in an artist's life

that brings the prestige

like winning the Duck Stamp.

This is the greatest prize

in wildlife art.

What we had heard is that if you win

the Federal Duck Stamp, you become a millionaire.

I tried to come up with some taglines

that would make people's ears perk up.

When I started going around the country

and saying, "If you can paint ducks, you can earn a million bucks,"

people got more interested.

There's not that many Duck Stamp winners.

There's this handful of entries.

All of them could be the stamp.

They could all be the stamp.

But there can only be one stamp.

When European settlers first arrived in America,

they told stories of ducks so great in number

that they would black out the sky.

But by the 20th century,

punt guns, feathered hats,

and unregulated market hunting

began to drastically reduce their population.

This decline reached a boiling point

when drought, dredging,

and unsustainable farming practices

created the man-made environmental catastrophe

known as the Dust Bowl.

With the wetlands drained,

the ducks had no place to land or feed

during their migration

and the Great Plains soon became a mass graveyard

for migratory birds,

raising the question--

how do we protect birds from man?

From the dust

emerged an unlikely hero for the ducks.

Ding Darling, a political cartoonist

who drew scathing works

that highlighted the plight of American waterfowl.

FDR, a target of many of Ding's cartoons,

appointed him to the Bureau of Biological Survey

with a challenge-- "Let's see if you can do better."

Ding rose to the challenge

by passing the 1934 Duck Stamp Act,

a law that required every waterfowl hunter

to purchase a federal stamp

for their hunting license.

Armed with the stamps' revenue,

Ding began to buy, lease, and maintain wetland habitat

and gave birth to what we now call

the National Wildlife Refuge System.

Ding had saved the ducks from extinction

while forging an indelible bond

between art and conservation.

The early years of the stamp

were designed by commissioned artists.

But in the 1940s,

the selection processes opened up to the public

in the form of a nationwide art contest.

And this is where things get inherently more interesting.

In 2001, I joined the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Six years later, I joined the Federal Duck Stamp office.

It's Migratory-Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp,

but it's commonly known as the "Duck Stamp."

It's a 7x10 painting.

It has to be hand-drawn.

It has to be the work of the artist.

It also has to be one of five species.

selected for that year's contest.

The million-dollar stamp

it's a rumor.

A lot of people thought

the government gave a big bag of money

for winning the contest. We don't.

There is no monetary prize from the government.

What the artist can do

is license the art image

and they can put that on coffee mugs,

T-shirts, limited edition art prints.

They can make a million or more dollars

from selling their art.

The type of people that enter

are very passionate about wildlife.

They're very passionate about art.

Some are more passionate than others.

It's a duck stamp shirt.

This is the duck stamp contest.

I've seen temper tantrums.

It's this little microcosm of people

and they wanna see this as the big goal.

"This is it. This is the one I'm gonna win."

I go to great lengths every year

to try to get my work done

and get out of New Jersey

and come out here to South Dakota

and just spend time working on my painting out here.

What comes out first, the front?

I've been going to the Duck Stamp competition

since 1995

and you get to be friendly with all these people.

You see them every year.

And I met Adam

and even though he's 17 years younger than me,

we just hit it off right away.

We hold the same views on most things

and-- and on artwork, too.

Adam I wasn't happy at art college.

I didn't like being around people that thought so differently

and I really felt like it was a waste of money.

My parents didn't want me to be

some starving artist living in their basement.

They said, "The only way we would support you leaving the college early

is, like, if you won the Federal Duck Stamp."

That was the year that I won.

My new goal is to try to win it again, you know?

And I don't wanna be a one-hit wonder.

We decided to try to just go on a quest

in search of canvasbacks.

We're gonna look in every puddle,

every lake,

every pond

until we find them.

It's amazing. A lot of people consider this fly-over country.

To me, this is, like,

some of the best our country has to offer.

It's just incredible.

It's almost desolate,

but yet it's teeming with life.

I think there's a good chance we will find canvasbacks.

I don't know that there's a very good chance

that we'll be able to actually

get on them to photograph them well.

I mean, it's one thing to find them.

It's a whole other thing

to really get everything to work right

to where it all comes together.

When I'm getting ready to paint the duck stamp,

I will choose my species,

then I go out and take as many photos as I can.

That's half of the fun if not more of the fun.

Well, I have drawn as long as I can remember.

It runs in the family a little bit.

A friend of mine was working in an animal shelter

and somebody had dumped three puppies

about 10 months old, and Hallie was one of 'em.

There was just something between us from the beginning.

Something I probably can't even explain.

This is special.

I was teaching her tricks

and she really enjoyed it.

And it was February and it was snowing out

and she was bored and I thought,

"Well, I'm gonna teach you something new and different."

- Yes.

Here you go.

Just a minute. Just a minute.

I introduced the brush to her.

Probably within a week or so, she was picking it up

and she seemed to really enjoy it

and she thought it was a lot of fun.

So we just kept going.

Come on, baby. Come on!

Good girl.

Two months later, she suddenly went blind overnight.

She was fine one day. I didn't even see it coming.

The next day, she was walking into walls

and couldn't find food I threw on the floor.

Um, it was very obvious she, you know, couldn't see at all.

She actually was very depressed

for about four or five months.

She would sit and cry and she'd shake if we'd go anywhere.

And, um, about,

I don't know, maybe six months later,

she started coming out of it and wanting to do things.

So one day, I sat her down

next to her paintbrush

and I was really shocked.

She reached over, picked it up, and just started painting.

- Atta girl. Atta girl. - Didn't miss a beat.

Yeah, good job. Good, Hallie.

Good job. There you go.

Good girl.

There you go.

There. Good girl!

That's pretty, Hallie.

And she was doing so many paintings,

I thought it would be nice

to start trying to sell them

and donate to dog rescue.

And the local newspaper picked the story up.

Then it went viral on the Internet

and I don't know how that happened.

Right after that, there were, like, a million orders

and I was like, "What's going on with this?"

I thought I had a pretty good year last year with my art,

but my blind dog sold more art than I did.

I figure at this point,

I'm gonna have to win the Federal Duck Stamp contest

to get my name back.

I love the cinnamon teal

and it actually is the one I chose this year.

What I try to portray in my entry

is a duck with attitude,

noble-looking.

2010, that was the year

my entry actually got into the last round.

I learned a lot from that, you know?

Newspaper, it said it looked like a kind of duck

you would like to see in the crosshairs of your rifle

and I thought, "Oh, no!"

But-- but that's the kind of look, you know,

one that looks very robust

and good eatin', I guess.

If I was to win the Duck Stamp,

the biggest thing would be the accomplishment

after so many years of entering.

Just the excitement of winning

and finally getting there.

Marge Oh, yeah, it looks pretty good.

- What do we got here, Arby's? - Uh-huh.

How's the paintin' goin'?

Pretty good.

I found out the Hautmans

are entering a painting this year.

Aw, hon', you're better than them.

The Hautman brothers, all three of them

are tremendous artists.

If there's more than one in the contest, it's a scary year.

Jim I guess they called us the "Duck Dynasty"

before the TV show came out.

The "New York Yankees of wildlife art."

I'm not a big Yankees fan.

I'd rather be the "Minnesota Twins of wildlife art,"

although they don't win very much.

My introduction to art, I guess,

that's before I even remember.

I just grew up in an artistic family.

My mom was a professional artist.

I go to my mom's on Tuesdays every week

and we paint.

I 'member Dad talkin' about

entering the Federal Duck Stamp.

Did you ever think about entering it way back in the day?

Well, I was afraid I might beat him out.

She was a great teacher.

We'd bring our work to her

and show her what we were doing

and she'd always tell us what to do.

And still, she's 90 and we bring our paintings over

and have her critique 'em.

Well, this is my dad's duck stamp collection.

He started collecting 'em

the first year they were out.

I think it was 1935.

Maybe because it was one of the few things that he actually collected,

you know, as a kid you go,

"Well, what's so important about these things?"

Or, "What's so interesting?"

This was the first stamp that Jim won,

which was 1989.

I think the Hautmans are just really great artists, you know?

It's like they-- and they have each other to rely on

for critique and input, and that's huge.

So those guys are magical. I mean, they're not only good,

but they seem to have an innate sense

of what the judges wanna see.

But the fact that it's only a one-Hautman year,

it makes it easier.

Every year, I think I have a chance or I wouldn't enter,

but this year, neither of my brothers are eligible

'cause once you win, you sit out for three years.

So that's two people out of it

that had the best chance of winning.

I make my coffee,

fill a thermos,

come out here,

get all my e-mail and Internet stuff done

while I'm waiting for ducks,

and then I just take duck photos.

- It's very relaxing.

Well, you definitely see things

when you're out photographing

or just watching ducks that stick in your head.

I just want to win the contest. That's my goal--

to do the best painting I can.

I got a ways to go to catch up with my brothers

because I'm two behind.

He's won it two times

and, you know, most people don't ever win it at all.

I'd say he would definitely be a favorite.

You know, I don't think there's anybody

who I would fear competing against more than him in the contest.

I'm Rob McBroom.

I've been entering the Duck Stamp competition--

now this will be the 13th year.

I work at Amphetamine Reptile Records

and then I also work at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts

as security.

I like cartoon-based art

and I enjoy the surrealists

My artwork has a lot of glitter

and rhinestones

and glow-in-the-dark aspects to it.

Nothing at all what they're looking for.

This was the 2000 entry of ruddy ducks.

It was right at the cusp

of when logos were starting to come into my work.

I wasn't sure if they were gonna accept it or not.

When I got in the competition, I'm like,

"Well, this is pretty good. Let's keep going on this."

This was the year I took a pornographic film

and then went to a Morse code translator.

And every dot and dash in there

spells out the monologue that some lady was giving

as she was having something done to her.

This one also has my friend Tabitha,

who's... "Rr-ow!"

So I used-- I had just met her

and so I put her in the mountain range.

She was kind of a muse for a few years there.

2011, oh!

You know what this is?

2011 was the mallards.

Two mallards, actually.

I thought, "Well, I bet nobody's ever done that scene

of them copulating before."

One of the duck stamp guys

paints windows for the holidays and stuff,

like, you know, of businesses, laundromats or restaurants.

So I went to it and I took his Santa Claus

and I put that in there.

This was the year I started taking shots.

Rob McBroom is a guy who enters the Duck Stamp every year

and every year, he violates the rules.

He breaks every rule of the contest

and he's really just an attention-seeker.

I don't know if we need to talk about Tim Taylor.

He's, uh-- he and I have never directly confronted each other.

Uh, he has taken to bad-mouthing me on the Internet a bit.

He's found this contest

that people take very seriously

and the contestants worked really hard on their entries

and he mocks it.

He does paintings that mock it.

Here's the first one that I found about me.

I never said a bad word about his artwork.

It just doesn't belong in this contest.

But he obviously read that

and took great offense to it.

What I decided to do was him and one other guy--

I started recreating their work,

their kind of "greatest hits" as it were,

using my own style.

This is about as close as you can get

to Tim's original without actually knowing the size.

And it's completely built from scratch.

This is the piece of work that Rob McBroom

took off of the Internet to "abstract."

The little bits I've learned about him,

I'm like, "Okay, he obviously hates Barack Obama

and he hates Communism,

so I decided to load it up with imagery with that.

Here's Barack Obama's birth certificate

that he released.

Here's the eye of the duck,

which is the Communist symbol.

There's other things in here,

like, he's holding a baby at a christening,

and then I put Lenin's head on top of it.

And then there's some of his other pieces

that didn't do so well in the competitions

that he doesn't like.

So there's an old surf scoter

that he had, uh-- that he was unhappy with.

So that went in there.

I was alternately--

I thought it was funny,

then I was a little angry about it,

then I didn't care.

I'm his big villain

and I didn't even know I was his villain.

And nobody cares.

I wonder if the guy's ever actually seen a duck.

I've got about 15, 20 hours in this already.

I've got about another 20 to 30 to go.

The legs are changed now.

They're kicking out because I have to work

with the sabers on the Oakland Raiders thing.

Tim Taylor likes the Raiders.

I've been tweaking certain things there

just to go, "Ha ha, this was something you used to enjoy

and I'm using it now."

Even the detractors

they, uh-- they haven't faulted my technical skill.

So that's nice. It's not like they're going,

"Oh, this thing's a giant piece of crap."

It just doesn't belong

anywhere near what they have goin' on.

I would prefer to be a full-time artist,

but that's not something I can just go do.

I drive around the roads delivering mail

and, I mean, it takes probably about five hours

to drive the route.

I don't mind carrying mail at all

because now I know the route, so I don't have to think about anything.

It's just-- you just drive

and pretty much just do whatever you want

as long as you get the mail delivered.

For me, the Federal Duck Stamp painting

is supposed to be the best representation

of the breed.

I chose the mallard

because I have really good reference photos to work from.

The biggest disadvantage of the mallard

is that it's so common that everybody wants to do one.

And so you--

your mallard painting has to stand out

among all of the other mallards.

They have sort of a wild look

and-- which is really hard to capture.

Bob Ever since Rebekah was really young--

four, five years old-- she's always just sat at the table doin' art.

It started occurring to Janice and me,

you know, you could tell

that she was drawing stuff that, you know, I'd go,

"You know, I wouldn't draw that like that."

Just really creative stuff.

Susan I guess she was, like, about 13 or so.

Her mom brought her over here

and I kind of got her involved in the Junior Duck Stamp

and that's kind of where it all started.

I didn't really know that I could paint

until I entered the Junior Duck Stamp contest.

I worked on it all spring.

Then I got first place in my age group

and then best of show for the state.

She calls me on the phone

and she goes, "I won the nationals!

I won the Duck Stamp!"

The Junior Duck Stamp contest changed my life.

It was a lot bigger of a deal than I thought it was

and it just made me wanna keep entering

and then, you know, once I learned about the Federal

and how much of a bigger deal that is,

it's like this thing that you wanna spend your life pursuing.

The only time I've ever lived away from home

was during the summer when it was only an hour away.

So I'm kind of ready

to have my own place

and it doesn't really matter to me where it is.

Mr. She's hoping that something will happen, you know,

as far as direction in her life.

It's like a lot of-- a lot of young people are right now.

Entering the Duck Stamp is like

entering the lottery or something.

I mean, it's a pretty big thing, you know, if I win

and it's my entire career.

You know, my name will be

on the list of people who have won the Duck Stamp

and that list isn't ever gonna be forgotten.

Thank you for calling Sam Houston. This is Rita.

Let me check on that for you. Give me just one second.

Excuse me, Bob,

do you have an RW1 plate block of six available?

- No. - No? Not right now?

- Okay. - Tell them it's only in my dreams.

Okay.

We do not have one in stock at this time.

I'm probably the biggest duck stamp dealer

in the world.

It is a-- a disease of sorts

to start collecting this stuff.

The other stamps, they're nice.

There's so many of them.

The duck stamps,

they're special.

When you can see the duck's eyes

and you can see the--

the patches on its wing of color

and identify what that duck is

in one-inch size, that's skill.

Since the duck stamps are not used to mail a letter,

they aren't considered a postage stamp

in the classic philatelic sense.

But many of those classic U.S. collectors,

they're secret duck collectors

because everybody likes a duck stamp.

They realize that it's the longest-continuing series of stamps

that's ever been issued by the United States--

probably any country--

and just all the good work it does.

Richard When I was a kid, I just tried

to collect every stamp on earth

till I hit about 16 years old

and I had to buy my first duck stamp to hunt.

First stamp, I looked at it

and I'm like, "This is it."

And I never touched another stamp

other than duck stamps since that day.

This artwork-- some of the most

interesting content you have out there.

And, you know, over the years,

I became more interested in the artists themselves.

It's a very interesting little world.

It really is.

We saw a lot of birds on this lake

and we're just trying to get set up

and try to fool some into good photo range.

We both wanna do canvasbacks,

but since Adam is the main photographer,

whatever he chooses, after that

I'll-- I get the second pick.

You're gonna get to choose from all the crummy ones.

Should I throw any off the left here, Adam?

Yeah, you could throw some out here.

I really enjoy Tim.

He's like the kind of friend that, you know,

"Oh, oh, you're moving? Oh, I'll drive out

and help you guys pack up your stuff," you know?

He's that kind of a friend.

I didn't have the camera equipment

to be set up and shoot like Adam does,

so I figured I'd start gettin' birds moving.

I've got it.

So I became a bird rustler.

Yo!

Yo!

Get up! Come on!

It's a lot of effort to drive up here

and to set up all this stuff and get up at00 in the morning.

If they're just gonna sit there complacent,

we can't deal with that, so I gotta get them moving.

Yo!

Go, go, go!

- Here we go! - I just get 'em up in the air

and hopefully they come into Adam's decoys over there.

- Don't go that way!

There's a canvasback circling.

I know a lot of guys

go to, like, aviaries and that kind of stuff,

and I actually really prefer

- using wild birds only.

You really get to experience the birds in their natural habitat

and that's-- that goes a long way.

I think it translates into your artwork.

These areas are really critical

to waterfowl population levels.

Without these, you wouldn't have the ducks

like you're seeing here right now.

I think there's good government

and then there's a lot of bad government.

And the Duck Stamp program is one of the best ideas

the government has ever really had.

The program generates $25 million a year.

98 cents on the dollar

that you spend on that stamp

goes straight on the ground for purchasing wetlands.

It cannot be used for anything else.

Waterfowl, they have this marvelous

annual massive migration.

And so our job is to make sure

they have the wetlands and grasslands that they need

to be successful breeders.

You can imagine where this conversation goes.

"Collecting money for what?"

For wetlands to preserve waterfowl.

And then some people say, "Wait a minute, you're a hunter.

Isn't that, you know-- isn't that a contradiction?"

And I say, "Of course it's not a contradiction."

I mean, hunters care about the land.

We care about the birds. We gotta preserve them

so we have them to hunt.

The hunters have been carrying

the weight of this stamp for 80 years now.

It's the same the way that you do something

with people who cut down trees.

They replant and within another hundred years

you'll have another forest there.

It is for the protection of not only waterfowl,

but more than 700 species across the nation.

Robert Nobody would buy a salamander stamp

or a speckled toad stamp.

But they'll buy a duck stamp.

And when they take that money

and they buy all these thousands of acres of wetlands

and protect them,

all those little creatures

come under that umbrella.

That's one thing-- I'm so proud I'm part of this.

And it-- it almost makes me emotional.

...kinda like a mulberry tree.

- Oh, yeah? - They turn kind of purple.

Having grown up with my father

who loved nature and wildlife and hunting and that stuff,

he, you know, as soon as I was old enough,

he started taking me with him.

I would walk through the woods, you know,

and usually carry my little BB gun or something,

shooting at leaves and that kind of stuff.

But, you know, I was always really intrigued.

I was drawing a lot of typical things

that boys like to draw-- the monsters,

dragons, cars-- I mean, you name it.

I was-- I loved all that stuff, too.

But I kinda kept getting bored with each thing.

There was always this element of nature.

When I drew that stuff,

it's like I never tired of it.

Dee I've always enjoyed doing realistic art.

I've tried to do a little bit more looser,

impressionistic art when-- when forced.

And I tried to enjoy it.

I appreciate it when other people do it well,

but I don't get the satisfaction out of it

as I do every hair, every feather detail.

Abstract painting

is the realm of the intellectuals.

Realistic painting, realistic duck stamps

are people who have invested

most of their lives in observing the wildlife,

learning how to become a painter.

There's no shortcut

to being good.

I can go back in fields and in the woods

and I see a lot of wildlife.

I'll see some things

that I just can't wait to go back

and paint for, like, three or four hours at a time.

I don't know how else to describe it.

I always like seeing birds

and how they act and how they fly.

I remember seeing mallards

fly by really close

against this yellow grass background with the sun on 'em.

That's one of the duck memories

that's really engraved in my mind.

I just have this vision in my head

that I'd like to try and recreate.

After going through all the photos, trying out some sketches

and ideas and stuff,

I'm up in the air personally

between these two.

I think both of them could have a lot of potential.

Hey, guys! Do you wanna come see these?

I wanna see what one you like the best.

I like the cattails in that one

and I also like the geese in that one.

- I probably wouldn't put the geese in. - Yeah.

- Kinda weird there. - I probably-- they were actually, like,

in the background, like, when I was kinda piecing it together.

I just didn't take 'em out.

The geese are actually kind of cool in it.

- Hannah. - But I like that the most.

I thought I could put,

like, a big dead tree back here, too,

- or something like that. - That would be kind of weird.

- No. - It'd be almost too much.

- - Okay. - Janet - I don't like that idea.

Everybody's a critic.

It's not like he picks up his paintbrush

and says, "Oh, I think I'll paint this"

and he whips it out in a few weeks.

It's months of planning.

I guess sometimes I think,

"Why do you do this? Why do you put yourself through this?"

I won in '99,

so it's been quite a while

and she never knew me when I won.

Her whole experience has been me working really hard,

struggling, spending months on a painting

and then seeing it shot down.

Last year, like, I just crashed and burned.

A lot of people really liked my entry last year.

Um, not the judges.

It's our, you know-- our livelihood.

We depend on him. He has all of us depending on him.

It's not a hobby

and sometimes it gets, you know, a little disheartening,

but, you know, I'm behind him whatever he wants to do.

And as long as he wants to enter,

he's gonna enter.

Janet and I actually talked about, you know,

is the art gonna be enough to sustain us?

You know, like, should I start looking into

the possibility of another line of work

or, you know, something else to do?

I mean, things have been really difficult for us recently

and, you know, it's like with three little mouths to feed,

um, and they look at you, you know,

and-- it's hard.

You know, with art, you're investing basically in yourself

and you don't know if those investments are gonna pay off.

It's gotta be the best that you can make it

and then you just have to hope

that the rest is gonna fall into place.

I hate when I lose.

I feel like I let my family down.

Go.

Right now, I am trying to learn

to shoot guns.

The first few times, I don't hit anything,

and then as I keep shooting, I start,

- you know, getting better.

I just like the feeling of success after practicing.

That goes with everything I do.

Go.

- - ...looks like it's going down into the grass. - - Oh, okay.

Rebekah's kind of young

and she has a whole future ahead of her in art, I believe.

She has seemed to have exploded so fast.

It needs to be, like, really clean.

Like, just really crisp, clean lines.

Yeah, I-- I was...

Well, this has been the first year

that Rebekah has really ever critiqued my work.

I've always been the teacher and she's the student.

But I think she's a lot more confident

and I'm glad she's doin' it

because she has got a lot of good insight.

You know, at this age,

I can't believe how she paints.

I just really can't believe how well she does.

Coming up with that special entry,

it's-- it's almost an obsession.

I know that I'm capable of winning,

so I'm just gonna keep trying

and eventually I will, hopefully,

if I live long enough.

Both the times I won,

I thought I had a pretty good chance.

When it comes down to the very end

and you've been looking at it for a long time,

you're never really sure,

but you have a pretty good idea

if it's gonna be in the top 20 or so.

I'm starting to get a little bit nervous.

I've got quite a bit to go.

I don't think that any single element

in this painting is done

except for maybe this background water up here.

I mean, I'm getting there.

Nowhere near as far as Adam is.

I'm happy with it

and I feel like I'm a pretty tough critic

of my own artwork.

It always helps when other people seem to like it.

You know, I know my wife likes this one a lot

and some friends of mine seem to like it.

It's a classical kind

of duck stamp-feeling design.

Dee I always hate to predict what my chances are

because I'm usually wrong.

If I think, "Ooh, I did pretty good this year,"

it usually places lower than when I think,

"Oh, I shouldn't even have entered."

I think this year I like the composition.

We'll see how it goes from here.

It turned out pretty well.

It's along the lines of what I thought it would

in my mind's eye when I first came up with the concept.

I was a little concerned that all the holographic Mylar gift bag

would be too distracting,

but I don't think so.

I would say my percentage of winning this year,

well, you can't have less than 0%,

but it's pretty close to that.

All I can say is I feel really good about my entry.

I feel like I have a better chance this year

than I have any of the previous years I've entered.

It does feel really good to be done with it.

I like to send it out on the last day

'cause I just feel like

it usually ends up kind of in the middle of the pack somewhere.

And that's more where I like to be

'cause most people seem to be like Tim

where they wait to, like, the last possible second to send it out, so...

Yeah, but we've--

we've sent ours out on the same day.

You've just been done before me.

Right, right.

Federal Duck Stamp office. Vivian speaking.

How may I assist you?

That's really amazing.

- But it still smells strong.

So there are 136 pieces that have arrived

and we expect a larger shipment this afternoon.

Rob McBroom has been entering for many years now.

I have to say that it is the most unique piece,

and as far as artwork is concerned,

- it makes my brain work. - Mm.

Vivian It's really interesting to see everyone's perception

of what they believe should go on a stamp.

Some of them have blues and greens and purples

and some have these darker, very fall palette colors.

Well, it's super exciting to think

about the fact that one of these paintings in these crates

will be the winner.

The Federal Duck Stamp contest this year

will be at Maumee Bay State Park,

which is in Oregon, Ohio,

and it's a beautiful location right up on Lake Erie.

Duck stamp people are real.

They like the excitement of it.

They like the beauty of it.

Once you get into this incestuous little bunch

of painters and stamp collectors

and get all caught up into this bird's nest

of happiness.

Myself as a child...

down on the banks of the Great Miami River

fishing with my granddad

and the ducks were coming through.

We were sitting still on the bank

and they floated right in front of us

and Grandpa said, "Wow, look at that."

You know, at the end of the day,

those are some of the only things you're gonna take with you in life.

Mamie Well, I worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

for almost 30 years.

They asked me if I would be a judge

and at first I said no.

'Cause I knew that it would be very difficult to do.

I had one judge say to me last year, he said,

"But I don't wanna disappoint anybody."

And I said, "When you come down to it,

they're all gonna be disappointed except for one."

Larry And you're gonna have the opportunity

to, in this first round of judging,

look at each entry individually

and in this first round vote in or out.

The actual regulations say

you're looking at the anatomical accuracy,

you're looking at the artistic composition,

and you're looking at the suitability

for being printed on a stamp.

Hang in there and stick to your guns,

somebody goes storming out of the auditorium.

Absolutely, it has happened before that they do get upset

and they, you know, pfft-- out of the room.

It is truly an honor to be here today

and thank you for coming to be part of the 2013

Federal Duck Stamp art contest.

We are pleased to be here today in the Midwest region.

- Go Midwest!

Today, a very difficult task.

The judges will have to review 200 pieces of art.

And again, that is a very, very hard job to do

because what they decide at the end will definitely become

the 2014-2015 Federal Duck Stamp.

It'll say on the screen up there

that there are 202 entries.

Actually, I'll let you in on a little secret,

there's only 201.

Number 17 was disqualified.

It was the wrong species.

Today in round one,

each of the judges will vote either in or out.

If at least three of the five judges vote in,

that piece will go to the second round of judging tomorrow.

We'll begin the judging now with entry number one.

The in and out round.

That usually takes the whole first day.

They show the painting to each judge

until the judge waves them on.

And then at the end of all five judges seeing the painting,

they say, "Vote."

It takes three ins to get past

the first round of the judging.

- - Please vote. - - And if you don't get that, you're out.

It's out.

The first round is really a test

on anybody's nerves

and their confidence and their egos.

- Number 14. - You're sitting there

and they're holding their cards up

and you suddenly realize,

"I didn't win anything."

- I'm completely out." - It's out.

It goes from 200 down to sometimes only 20 pieces left

by the time we get to the second round.

Number three.

Please vote.

Number three is out.

It's out.

Number 116.

Richard Yeah, it's nerve-wracking

no matter how you cut it.

You spend so much time working on this painting

and you like to think that what you came up with

was something pleasing and done well.

But then you've got these five people

that, at the end of the day, they have the say.

And you sit there and you watch that painting paraded in front of them

and then you see their scores.

It's a lot to take. You gotta have a pretty thick skin, I think,

to be in the duck stamp contest business.

Please vote.

- - It's in. - - I made it through.

Um, honestly, with three in votes,

I personally feel like if you're really gonna really be in it,

you almost feel like you should have five in votes.

You can sometimes come out of that and do a little better.

We'll see.

Number 138.

I really don't, um, have

a big career that I'm working on other than painting.

That's kind of what-- that's it.

If I win the contest,

it'll change my entire career.

I mean, it'll allow me to have a career

painting what I wanna paint

instead of painting or working for somebody else.

Please vote.

- It's out. - Whoops.

I don't know what happened.

Sometimes people are species specific.

- Like-- no, seriously,

- That's true. - when Adam and I-- when Adam and I

went to Florida,

we went to one of the judges...

- Yeah. - Okay.

- It's disappointing. - Oh, yeah.

- Huh? - I think yours is, uh--

- deserves a five in. - Well...

- You know? And then it might be better. - Yeah.

You might be right.

Yeah.

This is nice...

Number 83.

A lot of people think that I'm doing this as a joke

to their expense.

It's a pretty small group of people

that I would have to be making fun of.

And it's a lot of effort in order just to tweak them.

So I hope it helps the duck stamp competition

because it's a good program

that is getting less and less revenue coming in.

And so this brings it into a world

that most people would not do otherwise.

I think some people have kind of reached an understanding

this is just what I'm gonna do.

"Let baby have his bottle." That kind of thing.

Please vote.

I'm not making fun of ya.

It's good for me. It's good for the contest.

It's not winning, it's the degree in which I lose.

Thanks.

It's out.

Yeah, it was fun.

I, uh-- I've enjoyed doing them over the years.

And thanks for being cool with it

- and everything. - Well, I-- no, I really enjoy seeing 'em.

And, you know, anything that attracts attention...

- That's what I think. - to wildlife, in my opinion, is great.

While it may not win the federal contest,

it's just great to raise...

The stamp is in trouble, I think, the same way

that a lot of national

and state wildlife refuges are.

People just don't go out the way they used to.

Hunters are not doing it as much anymore.

Hunters are slowly declining.

And generally, that's the people

that-- that buy the stamp.

If we somehow lost the duck stamp

and the revenue associated with the duck stamp,

five million acres of habitat

would disappear overnight.

Jim If the duck stamp were to end,

that'd be a tragedy going forward.

If they don't have the money, I don't think they can save the land.

You don't have to be a waterfowl enthusiast

to buy the Federal Duck Stamp.

It's a way that anyone who enjoys nature

can make a positive impact.

So how do you get it into the public consciousness even more?

What, 17 years later and we're still talking about it

that it was mentioned briefly as a side plot

in "Fargo"? You know.

The duck stamp program is kind of screwed

unless they can get into the cultural milieu, as it were,

because there's too many things competing for its attention.

So the program, I'm hoping, benefits

by at least me doing it

and bringing it to an audience that isn't there.

But more often than not,

I have had zero votes, so...

Obviously.

But your painting is awesome!

Thanks.

Number 112.

Yeah, sure, I'd like to win, you know?

As far as this year is concerned,

I think I probably have one of my best entries going right now

that I've got probably more work into it

than I've done in probably any entry.

I'm not saying that I'm gonna win.

I mean, it's all based on human subjectivity.

Please vote.

It's in.

I would've liked to have at least four ins,

but things sometimes change when you get past the first round

and judges have lost one of their favorites.

They might change their opinions on what they like.

This year, I'd like to be in the finals

and, of course, I'd like to either see me or Adam win.

Number 122.

I mean, I'm sittin' there and I'm tryin' to just relax

and, you know, just not think about it too much.

But you just never know with the contest

how things are gonna go.

You're just kinda sittin' there holdin' your breath the whole time.

Please vote.

It's in.

Number 89.

Please vote.

It's in.

Number 201.

Please vote.

Dee I don't really expect to win

and when I don't, I'm not disappointed.

- The whole duck stamp deal,

it's for a good cause.

5.5 million acres, I think,

and that's very important,

so if I were ever to win, it would be awesome,

but if I ever don't, I'd still keep entering.

I was second in 1983,

and I actually won in 2009.

Took me 27 years.

You put so much into it.

And it's more than a painting, just a painting.

I mean, it's not like a regular painting

you go in your studio and do to sell it or something.

You put everything you have in.

It was just a culmination of a lot of years of work.

I had a friend of mine who came in second.

He told me, he said, "Well, I just thought

next year would be a shoo-in."

Well, eventually, he doesn't even enter it anymore.

He just gave up.

Only a fool would go there

expecting to win the contest.

You know, you just-- you can't do that.

There are too many good paintings.

You may have a perfect stamp entry,

a beautiful entry,

but, you know, it's one stamp

and that's it.

Thank you and good morning.

And now we're getting ready to get to the, uh,

exciting part of this contest.

In round two,

instead of in and out,

each judge will be shown

the 63 entries still remaining in the contest.

They will vote between one and five,

five being the best score

and one being the, uh, well, not so much.

At the end of the round

after each of the 63 pieces has been voted on,

the five highest scores

will advance to the third round.

So without any further ado,

we will begin with the first entry

in round two.

The second round,

the lowest possible score you could get

from five judges is a five

and the highest you get is 25.

I don't know that anyone has ever gotten 25 in the second round.

At least I haven't seen it

since I've been there.

Number 69.

Please vote.

Thank you.

Number 105.

Marc I had four ins in the first round.

So I have a shot.

You know, gettin' five ins would be a lot better,

but Steiner won last year

with four ins in the first round,

so it's still possible.

At this point, that's what it's about.

It's about winning, you know?

Coming in second, it's okay,

but you don't get anything for second.

Please vote.

Thank you.

Number 116.

Please vote.

Number 89.

The Hautman brothers,

every year that any of them are in the contest,

I always think in the back of my mind,

like, that's my biggest competition.

Please vote.

Thank you.

Number 122.

Please vote.

Thank you.

- - Number 112. - - My goal is to make the final.

And, of course,

I'd like to see either me or Adam win.

And if I were to win,

I wouldn't want Adam to come in second.

I'd want him to come in, like, fifth or something

'cause I would be--

I wouldn't want Janet and Adam and everybody

to, "Well, Uncle Tim kept us from--

from winning the contest that year."

Please vote.

Thank you.

That concludes the judging in round two.

We're gonna allow the judges to stretch their legs

and get ready for the final round,

which we will begin at about30.

Once you're into something,

it's-- you wanna compete

and you wanna be the best.

I'm just gonna keep trying to win.

Maybe I'll be like an old guy

painting really inferior duck stamps

because I can't see and do what I could do when I was younger.

But I'm still trying, I guess.

One year, one day,

it's gonna be your painting

that the five judges like the best.

Okay, folks, we're gonna get started

into our final round of judging.

Here in round three

with the 16 final entries,

each judge will vote by number again.

At this point, it will either be

a three, four, or five.

So each entry will have a composite score

of between 15 and 25.

We're looking for a clear winner

and that winner will be the, uh--

on the 2014-15

Federal Duck Stamp.

Please vote.

Thank you.

Number 13.

Please vote.

Thank you.

Please vote. Thank you.

Please vote.

Thank you.

Number 69.

Please vote.

Thank you.

Number 122.

Please vote.

Thank you.

The year I won, I was at the contest

and, um, just nerve-wracking.

- - Number 89. - - Like, the showdown

filtered through hundreds of entries

until finally, it gets down to the final score.

I just had to wait to see

if anybody got a higher score.

Please vote.

Thank you.

Did he win?

Ahem.

Just...

Thank you.

Artist 122...

is our winner.

Adam Grimm.

Whoo-hoo!

Daddy, you beat them all.

I feel like a huge weight's been lifted off my shoulders.

I'm kind of almost in a state of disbelief

that that happened.

For what I do,

it's, like, the biggest thing I could probably about do.

- Yeah.

Well, we have no idea where life's gonna take us next,

but it-- it's just-- it's been like a fairy tale.

It's one thing after another.

It feels surreal. I mean, almost like--

almost like I stepped out of one world into a new world.

I don't know how to explain it.

Welcome to the 2014-2015

Federal Duck Stamp and Junior Duck Stamp

first day of sale!

Hey, do you realize that we get to be

the first folks in America

to buy the duck stamp today? Do you know that?

I'm from the Gulf Coast of Florida.

I came up a couple of days ago just to get up here.

$635--

full sheet of Federal, full sheet or Junior.

I support conservation.

I remember back when I was young

and just getting into buying the Federal Duck Stamp

and looking at that artwork on there

and thinking how amazing it was

that some artist out there painted that.

Following in that path,

being a part of that history,

that was a goal of my life,

but something that I guess I never really imagined

would one day happen.

Everyone wants to be remembered...

in some way, you know, to make some mark.

It's kind of neat to have something like this

that you know will never be forgotten.

It's a beautiful idea to combine art with conservation.

- It saves so many waterfowl

and other animals in habitats from extinction.

It's an American tradition, the duck stamp.

I just hope it doesn't go away.