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Every year in the fall, Dad and other men grouped together to grind sugar cane. Men boiled the sweet liquid until it is brown and thick. Aunt Sukey and I wasted no time jarring the the syrup that would last through the coming winter. Nothing tasted better than a nice piece of ham or bacon with biscuit and syrup.
During cold winter mornings Dad drove us up the road to catch the school bus, and built a fire to keep us warm. That little red coat you see was the only new coat I remember getting as a child and it lasted until I out grew it and handed it down to my sister Lola Judy. While waiting for the bus, most mornings I sat on the stump and stare at the big white house across the road, hoping one day I would live in a house that nice.
At a time when modern farm equipment was used in full force on most farms, we were plowing and clearing our land with mules. In the fall, dried corn stalks and other bushes were gathered and thrown into piles and burned. A few short months later, the fields were plowed and ready for the coming planting season in early spring. In this painting, I am extracting sweet potatoes from a straw lined hole in the ground, and covered with more straw on top, and protected from the weather with pieces of tin roof to prevent rot. We called this way of preserving potatoes a sweet potatoes bank. Our evening meal in this painting will consist of sweet potatoes baked in our wood burning stove and collard greens. YUM YUM!!!!
Oh yes! Here I'm washing clothes out back of the house in the old cast iron wash pot. I'll never forget it. Anyway, that's my uncle Fred, sleeping in the middle of the day. He had some sort of sleeping disease. If he went out to the field to pick cotton he wouldn't be on his feet long. So it was okay that he couldn't do much around the farm.
The men here is hanging tobacco in the tobacco barn. The tobacco will remain hung in the barn about a week for ripping before taking it to market. While the men hang the crop, I continue stringing more leaves on a stick. We almost always had a watermelon cut and cooling under a shade tree for break time. Dad sure did grow some huge melons on the farm back in the day,...something you don't see today.
Just as any one else, I've had many moments that I needed a quiet place to escape to for prayer and guidance.
In this piece, I felt the need to reach out to my Mom whom died when I was at age nine. But as an adult, The beach had always been a place for me to find the much needed tranquility and strength to make it through another day of uncertainty.
It took me a long time to come up with my book cover. I knew it needed to depict my life in the South and reflect the manner and setting in which I grew up. Here I'm cleaning corn while Dad and my little sister Lola Judy bring home a bucket of Blackberries. On this beautiful spring day I cooked creamed corn and Blackberry Cobbler for dinner.
I took great pleasure in doing this piece, as it shows just how work there was to be done before winter. The pecans need to be harvested, and the leaves needed to be striped from corn stalks to feed the mules during winter. The cane needed to be cooked into syrup and jarred. Dried corn were shelled and taken to the mill and grind into corn meal and much more.
What can I say about the leaking roof! Not a whole lot I guest, except that it was a fact for most poor folk back in the day. We simply hung our clothes where there was not a leak in the ceiling. In almost any case it took every bucket we could find to keep the place dry. Most importantly, our leaky roof never dampen our spirit. This piece show some of the ways we looked forward to rainy days. In this piece the boys are playing marbles, while I'm day dreaming on the foot of the bed. My uncle is sleeping as usual, and Lola Judy is catching rain drops and wetting up herself. My aunt sat in the rocking chair by the door keeping a eye on us all.
My favorite time of the day,...quitting time! The golden, orange sunset had always reminded me that it was approaching time to leave the fields and head home; that another part of the earth would soon be illuminated and bath in warmth. To this day I love the feel of the summer sun. Every setting sun on the farm gave my family a huge sense of accomplishment for our days work in the field. Before our cotton was taken to the Cotton Gin, every handful picked, was gathered and contained in heavy sheets and weighed, as Dad's profit depended on it's weight per pound.
I loved it when the men unpacked the tobacco barn, because on again it was time for Dad to get paid for all his,......or should I say, all our hard work. It amazed me to see all the many shades of brown that came from cured tobacco. I had no way of knowing this process made up the many brands and types of Cigars and cigarettes on the market then and now. Nonetheless, I enjoyed UN-stringing the huge golden leaves from the tobacco sticks.
Though my family sold the land I grew
up on, and probably back to it's original owners, we were one of a hand full of families
that still farmed with horse and mules in south Georgia in the late sixties. In this piece my family is without any modern convinces. We're planting a tobacco crop here, as the rest of the country advances to technology and machinery.
I simply could not wait to start painting this piece, as I loved the cotton growth from the moment it's planted to the very day it's picked and driven to the Cotton Gin. I didn't like (weeding) chopping cotton in the sun to much though, but I did it occasionally as you can see in this colorful piece.There is nothing as beautiful as a cotton field in full bloom, before it turn white.
Even on Saturdays we had catching up to do on the farm. In any case, we children made time to play.
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Weighing Cotton
Art IM 3
Print Only 199.00
Three Stages Of Cotton Growth Art IM 4
Print Only 199.00
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Refreshment time! There was one thing about living in the country in the old days. The one thing I remember, ...since there were no refrigerator or Icebox, my Aunt took pride in cooling off watermelons under a shade tree before giving us a nice juicy slice of the thick red fruit.
Once again, my favorite time of day. In this work, I'm sitting on a stump, staring out at the setting sun. My Dad and brothers wash up from a long day in the fields, while my sister Lola gathered flowers to take inside the house.
Gosh,....I hated getting my hair comb. I was tender headed and that pulling and tugging on my scalp hurt something terrible. I made any excuse to delay the process, but in the end Mama would grab me, pull me to a chair and demand that sat down and quit whining while she comb the long thick head of hair I had. And Daddy, why he just took pleasure in watching Mama comb it. I'll never forget when he spank my behind when I cut it for the sake of wearing an Afro. Those were the days in the 70's! A girl had to have her Fro and big earrings.
That's me, taking on the chores around the house. Doing so kept me busy and helped me adjust to life without Mom. At any rate, cotton was one of Dad's main cash crops back then, and he planted plenty of it.
Welcome to my Art Gallery.
My colorful art is primitive styled, mixed media, and was inspired by my need to design my first Southern Girl book cover. Each piece is reminiscence of my childhood while growing up on a secluded farm in the fifties and sixties. Each rendering of original art is painted on durable art paper and tells it own unique story. This collection of art reveal a much simpler time where quiet a few families possessed no modern conveniences. I hope you enjoy browsing this gallery and discover a piece you must have.
Burning The Fields Print
Art 03 149.00
Original available for bid
Tobacco Harvest
Print
Art 08 150.00
Original available for bid
Prayer On The Beach Print
Art 09 150.00
Original available for bid
Southern Girl Cleaning Corn
Print
Art 10 199.00
Original available for bid
The Harvest Print
Art 012 199.00
Original presently in the biding room
The Leaking Roof Print
Art 014 250.00
Original Available for bid
Tobacco Ready To Market
Print
Art IM 149.00
Original Available for bid
Left Behind Print
Art IM 2 199.00
Original ready for bid
A Day To Relax Print
Art IM-6 199.00
Original ready for bid
Watermelon Treats Print
Art 004 150.00
original available for bid
At Sunset Print
Art 007 170.00
Original ready for bid
Cotton Abound Print
Art 011 299.00
Original ready for bid
The Cane Grinding Print
Art 01 170.00
Original available for Bid
Catching The School Bus Art 04 170.00 Print
Original available for bid
Frames are not included.
Original sold
Print 149.00
King Cotton Art 05
Original Sold
Print 150.00
Thinking Of Tomorrow
Getting My Hair Done
82214-0090
Print 170.00
Original available for bid
Back in the day, when we picked cotton, I used to stare out our opened shuttered windows at night stare into the cotton fields at how beautiful the white huge bows of cotton were illuminated in the moon light. Oh, but how I hated being out in the fields in the hot mid-day sunlight to pick it. But picking cotton was one of our many summer jobs, as it was how Dad made money to support us financially.
