Sun on Cornstalks
Color studies, like old photos, bring back memories. Studies of corn stalks take me back to collecting corn stalks from farmers' fields. Looking for those perfect specimens among thousands, hanging them from the ceiling of my bedroom where I painted.
Still in art school I looked for things to paint. Things that were different from bowls of fruit. Broken dolls, dead roses, my dad's vice and table saw. Long before I turned to pretty girls I looked for things I'd never seen paintings of. Painting from life was drilled into my head in art school.
So when I had an idea of doing a large painting of corn stalks, it was either bring the stalks into my bedroom or go out where they grew. No car back then, so when Dad let me take the car for an hour or two I went out and brought things home to “the studio”. Dried up milkweed laid with my sister's broken doll. Pipe wrenches and wild sunflowers fill another canvas.
The gallery in Chicago took them all. When time was short it was color studies I turned to, to preserve the items I had collected. Now I am going through all my little studies and remembering good times, and some hard times.
