This painting is about a wonderful farm that I passed for years on my way to teach and was just recently sold to developers. I made up this story and poem to express my feelings about the farm, the painting and the state of life.
Today on the county steps, another farmer’s shattered dream. He was in the field cutting hay, while the bankers dissected and sold his life. It was all he knew, learned from his father’s father. Land passed down through generations, cleared by pioneers as they braved their way west.
Brutal times these last few years, price of gas driving cost higher profits lower. Every month, alone, he sat with his fears, now his land, his life like others, lost.
He knew this day was coming, small farms going the way of rabbit ears and party lines. The mountains of debt, the never-ending drought, the list of pains getting longer by the hour, always numb with worry. Every week a new suit knocking at his door, another insulting offer in hand.
But today they erased his life.
Metal roof shines bright
Aged walls peeling but sturdy
Cows amble slowly
Horses quiet, fed they wait
Trucks comes early, empty stalls
This is beautiful–thanks for posting it!
Ohh, how bittersweet! You captured it in paint and in words!!