postcard snapshot, American Dream
...two wonderful people lived as a couple, united in love, here in this home during the second half of the twentieth century... it can be Anywhere, USA... that place that is now gone, as Grant Wood, too, is gone ... but not the art......down the street a state highway marker makes note of this woman who created much and contributed more to others and who will ever remind us of another, her husband, the town druggist, who was a weaver of beautiful rugs and colorful stories having lived in small town America... that place we dream of... or try to revisit... do we ever get there? ... or arrive?
like their art, evident of hard work and silent focus, this strong couple left a mark on their culture and community passing invisibly through the fluff and hype that often happens in places where people attempt to sing the national anthem yet are clueless to the second stanza which this artist stitched into her portrait of the America she knew and many now have forgotten...
the textile portrait, a form she invented, from what the rag man once bound or the Goodwill Store takes, is a living reminder of not only the artist but the people who were the society of the Kentucky landscape, town and farmlands surrounding this rural town... Anytown, USA
spring time is for planting
the tall blue spruce on the front lawn has the names of the dead heroes in this planet's latest war hanging from the limbs since November 2005... eggs are hatching in nests and rebirth is in the air of Nature... Nature always restores hope when politics cannot, Spring reveals peace when nations reject it and Earth teaches us to Love regardless of what the artisans, who live on her fragile surface, struggle to produce... often taking nothing and making SOMETHING profound out of it... as the Universe itself was born...2,350+ points of light have gone beyond our realm...
BANG
I choose peace, contemplation and creativity... for art is a way and not a THING
Catskills, NY
a warm sunset glows within the buds of winter trees on a day before yet another heavy snowfall near Windham, New York on the eve of March 2006... far from the Lake George region but ever reminding me of O'Keeffe's hills...