Spring Corn Field and Love

The only things you will find in a spring corn field are mud, manure, and dead stalks.  They are a common sight around here now.  You might see the above as a picture of nothing.  To me they are like old battlefields awaiting redemption and new life.  Apropos of nothing, here's a quote by Adam Kirsch from a poem by Philip Larkin, words that one wouldn't normally associate with Larkin:

                   In everyone there sleeps
A sense of life lived according to love.
To some it means the difference they could make
By loving others, but across most it sweeps
As all they might have done had they been loved.
That nothing cures.

The above is a 9x12 pastel.  The advantage of a pastel is that one doesn't have to wait for it to dry to take a photograph.

Blackinton and Responsibility

One can't help but notice these houses when driving through Blackinton, an historic part of North Adams, MA.  I think I will be tackling them again.  The above is a 9x12 oil on mdf panel.

Lately, I have been reading The Modern Element: Essays on Contemporary Poetry by Adam Kirsch.  In one essay, Kirsch describes "artistic talent" as "not a privilege but a responsibility".  I don't know why, but this hit me because I don't think artists often think of what they do as a responsibility.  As in don't waste our time, or make junk, or think about you are doing.  Only adds to the challenge.

I did update the previous post: a view of Spring Street, since I 'revised' the painting.