Art and Science

Born in 1918 into a family of Oregon pioneers, merchants, and businessmen, skinny and shy Craig Hudson always felt he was destined for other things. When his grandfather gave him drawing supplies to distract him from the pain of childhood rheumatic fever, the art muse took hold and he set his sights on becoming an artist. But life has a way of sending us down unexpected paths. Craig's life took him first into the rough Yukon Territory, then to college, where an interest in science began to take hold; the onset of World War II sent him into the Army's European Theater, where he discovered a lovely young French girl who would become his lifelong muse. Compiled from Craig's memoirs and his prolific letters to family and friends, this work relates Craig's life from budding artist to theoretical physicist and back to artist, recounted in his own charming and frank words. Craig C. Hudson was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. His early ambition was to be a painter. He attended Reed College and did graduate work at University of Oregon, becoming a theoretical physicist. Upon retiring from Sandia Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexcio, after twenty-one years, he returned to his first passion: painting. The subjects of many of his paintings were drawn from his love of science and his love of the Southwest landscape. Elianne Hudson, the second of Craig's four children, was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. With her Oregon pioneer roots calling to her, she moved to the Pacific Northwest. She is a Montessori elementary teacher. She and her two children live in Oregon. She has always had a passion for family histories.