The peaceful sound of the rain last night woke me up before 4 am, and after a while I gave up and settled down in front of the computer. I checked the live web cam at the Santa Anita track, and it looked pretty bleak. Not a horse in sight. They've been having terrible problems with their synthetic track which doesn't drain right, and signifigant big races set for tomorrow. Then I thought I'd check the local radio news site.
They were reporting TORNADOES in L.A.! Wooey, as a child in New Jersey I tormented myself with fears of tidal waves and tornados, both of which were unlikely. This painting, titled "Tornados Over Kansas" by J. Steuart Curry, was in the World Book Encyclopedia. I was a bit obsessed with this painting, daring myself to look at it, loving and hating it both. "I'll just look really quick and then I'll close it."
J. Steuart Curry is the forgotten man of Midwestern Regional painters of the thirties, regarded behind Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton. But it's an awfully good painting, don't you think? Just hope they get that chicken in the basement too.
6 comments:
I grew up in Okrahoma and one year helped friends at harvest time. Their mom was a freak about "going to the cellar" and sure enough, we got to spend 30 mins. in there while a storm blew over. Us, the bugs and the dusty jars of peaches and green beans.
I was a transplanted easterner doing hard time as a kid on the flat plains of Central Illinois. Tornadoes were always a big threat. I kept hoping one would carry me off to Oz.
I heard about the tornadoes too, but they didn't touch down in my neighborhood.
The painting is a good one. I looked up Curry on Wikipedia. I didn't know he was the same guy who painted the famous John Brown picture!
'I was a bit obsessed with this painting, daring myself to look at it, loving and hating it both. "I'll just look really quick and then I'll close it."' (I love that!)
When I was in 3rd grade a tornado blew the roof off our school, so we got to have a longer summer vacation than planned. But the best part was, it must have blown the roofs off lots of other houses around, because for the whole year I collected pieces of broken china and dishes and pottery on the playground and I got a whole pile of it.
Okrahoma, that's good! I knew about Oz, but somehow the painting trumped it. Namowal, watch the skies! Linda, sounds like that was the start of everything!
I'll just paraphrase the quote from the old store owner in Alabama as we hid while the tornado sirens went off, as if Linda had said it: "This is a good time to know Eddie."
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