SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2024 - ART

 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2024 - ART

American Gothic -  by Grant Wood

I used to have an ongoing story on Saturdays (but they were boring, and nobody read them).  I’ve tried to have some poetry, literature, or art.  Today art.  Please understand that my platform isn’t very good with art.

John Constanstable - “The Hay Wain’

https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/john-constable-the-hay-wain

This is a rural, bucolic picture of a farm wagon (used for hay) crossing a stream.  There are three (I think) horses pulling the wagon.  A dog is on the shore, and a lady is next to a house. There are two men with the wagon.  There is a broad meadow.  One fantastic image is of the clouds.  Constable has great clouds in his paintings, and these clouds are magnificent.

I’m taken back to a time when farming was done with horses and wagons - and not tractors and motorized vehicles.  My first impression is “peaceful”.  (but I’m looking, not doing).  Having once helped store hay bales in a hayloft, I know that farm work is hard.  

In my freshman year in college, with friends, we went to a variety store (not quite upscale enough to be a “department store”). I don’t remember the price, but I bought a copy of The Hay Wain for my dorm room. I’m guessing it was cheap—50 cents, maybe? Because as a freshman, I didn’t spend much money.

Picture 2

Vincent van Gogh's “Starry Night”

https://www.vangoghgallery.com/painting/starry-night.html

I have a copy of this picture in my apartment.  Yes, it is famous (as is The Hay Wain).  I have seen the actual image in the Yale Art Gallery on a particular loan.  

I’m not doing the picture justice to say it stirs my imagination.  The stars are gleaming, and van Gogh captures the wind.  There is a small town with some trees.  It's not quite peaceful as the wind seems to be pretty strong, but the image “speaks” to me - in an almost whimsical way.  

Picture 3

Grant Wood, Stone City

https://arthive.com/grantwood/works/379510~Stone_City_Iowa#google_vignette 

Again, it is a rural setting.  Stone City is between Cedar Rapids (where I grew up) and Anamosa, Iowa.  Grant Wood painted in Cedar Rapids.

Stone City used to be on the main road between Cedar Rapids and Anamosa. From Anamoa, you could travel to Maquoketa, where my cousins lived. When we visited our relatives, we would pass this spot where Wood painted the small town.

The last part of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church is on the left. The road crosses the Wapsipicon River.  

Grant Wood had his own style for hills and trees.  I smile when I see them.  In the foreground is a cornfield -  still early in the season. The rock quarry was still there the last time I traveled that way.  But, a “new” road now bypasses Stone City.  

*****

So, here are three pictures—all rural, all having some connection with me. As they say, “Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.” I find these three images beautiful.

And all of these remind me that I’m not in charge of anything.  I believe there is a God - infinite, who loves me and loves us - 

And it reminds me that LOVE WINS.

And that

LOVE TRANSFORMS US

Karen Anne White, October 12, 2024