Cotton and Backroads
"Cotton" a 48x48 oil painting is one in a series of works I am doing from old family photographs. The painting is of my mom when she was a small child right at the end of World War II. You can see her cute little dress which was made by my Grandmother. She is in a cotton field, and a poor one at that, smiling into the sun. Can you feel the sun, the happiness of a child?
My family has it's roots in the rural south. I have had the privilage of getting a taste of that world when I would visit my grandparents . Unfortunately, in today's world of Honey Boo Boo and as my cousin Zach, who is a fantastic blue grass musician , puts it, "that modern day country backroad anthem crap." ( If one is a bluegrass or country music fan, we are use to more poetic lyrics.) Anyway, my point is I believe the essence of the rural south is being overshadowed by silliness and parody. My quest with this body of work is to represent what I see in the people I grew up with and still know: a quiet confidence, strength and grace.
My mother and father are the embodiment of "quiet grace". They, like my husband's parents, my grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc., are all well educated , and have the ability to look past what they see in front of them and find what is good about most people and situations. They have a quiet confidence about who they are and have no need to compete to feel that sense of confidence. Maybe it is because they have seen so many who are in such a sad place and their perspective of the world is grounded. Hopefully, these qualities passed on to me through osmosis!
I want to capture that subtle feeling of strength and grace in my paintings - those moments when time stops and you can feel what is really happening. Of course, my main goal is to develop this "quiet grace" in my own life, so maybe through these paintings, I will.
