A Week to Remember

Wow, last week was incredibly exciting, with three opening receptions for juried shows coming on the heels of my participation in ARTucker! I was able to attend only two of the openings where my work is on display - those at the Booth Western Art Museum and the Downtown Gallery in Cartersville. Unfortunately I wasn't able to make the opening for the "Hands" show at Roswell United Methodist Church's Charis Gallery. I had planned to go, but then found attending just wasn't do-able so, sadly, I had to miss that one.

The opening reception for the exhibition at the Booth was wonderful -- truly a first class affair. It was made even better by the presence of my dear artist friends Baba' and Kathy Woodworth, and a surprise visit from my cousin Rick and his wife Patty, who detoured on their drive from New York to Florida just to attend the show!

Dust Bowl Series: Cimarron County on display at the Booth Western Art Museum

Artist Michael Goettee and I discuss the process I used to achieve the look of aged painted wood on Dust Bowl Series: Abandoned

Conversing with friends Kathy Woodworth and Baba' and family member Patty Murphy

The Dust Bowl Series was inspired by a very special lady named Hazel Mills, who is a native of Oklahoma. Now in her late 90s, Hazel lived through the Dust Bowl, a series of horrific dust storms that struck widespread areas of Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Kansas during the 1930s. These storms took a terrible toll on human and animal life, turning once-thriving communities into ghost towns and prompting mass migrations as crops failed and farms were foreclosed upon in the midst of the Great Depression.

Unlike many of their neighbors, Hazel and her family chose to stay put on their farm and tough it out. The determination and persistence it took to do this is beyond my imagination, but persist they did. Hazel and others like her who didn't give up in the face of nearly insurmountable hardship show us what the human spirit is capable of achieving. Hazel, who is related to my sister-in-law, was very much on my mind as I worked on Cimarron County (the first piece in the series). I plan to expand the series further, and hope I get an opportunity to talk with her while visiting family in Oklahoma this summer. Having been witness to one of the greatest natural disasters in America's history, Hazel's experiences and memories will continue to inspire and inform all future Dust Bowl works.

Text and images ©2017 Lynn Edwards