Small Town

 

Country Doctor
This is one of three illustrations created for the 1992 Annual Report of Christian Health System. The client wanted to show a Model T Ford going down a country road. Each illustration had to depict the moon and an American flag. 

I had an art gallery opening “to Everything there is a Season ” of my paintings and drawings on May 20,2018 at the Gallery Within- Webster Groves Christian Church.
I arranged the 77 images of my art into 14 categories to explore themes of freedom, wonder, nature, and more ,accompanied by complimentary lyrics, poetry, literature and scripture.  The show will be open until July 8, 2018, Tuesday through Friday 9:00 am until 3:00 pm.

Webster Groves Christian Church is located at 1320 W. Lockwood Ave. St. Louis, MO 63122. More information about this show can be found at http://www.wgcc.org

Wanderer is one of the categories and contains a story that I wrote in 1970 about the trips my family took to visit  relatives in Louisiana. Country Doctor was one of the images in this category.

Small Town

My first long trip, traveling in a four door 1936 Chevy. My Dad always owned Chevys when I was a boy.Reading Burma Shave signs as we traveled through Illinois, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi: M-IS, S-I-S, S-I-P-P-I. A jingle my brother and I sang .As our ‘36 drove down that never ending two lane highway. Movin’ me down the highway. Through flooded roads, winding through small southern towns.

Headin’ for Looseanna.

Looseanna – Spanish moss, Pine trees, Huey Long, frog giggin’, cotton mouths, Boy, Yankees, slot machines at every restaurant and grocery store. Aunt Ada and Uncle Rudy’s filling station and grocery store.Outside the store, oil cans, bottle caps, hundreds!Reading comic books, Shazam and the Katzenjammer Kids. The old gas pumps. Why did they change those pumps -progress?

Million dollar road. A one and a half lane road, Gravel covered, dust clouding our way to Aunt Minnie and Uncle Urah’s house,In Covington, Louisiana.Never changing, ever changingGeneration after generationSmall town. —John Dyess circa 1970

My father was born in Covington, Louisiana in 1910. He drove a Model A Ford to St. Louis around 1932. He had a limited education, but by studying at night was able to become a radio engineer at WTMV in East St. Louis, Illinois. He married my mother in 1933 when she was just 17 years old.

This painting ,which is in the category Wanderer,  is based on a photograph that I took of a highway while driving home after teaching an art class at Jefferson College in Missouri about ten years ago. I named this painting Homeward Bound. This is a scene my father would have seen while driving to St.Louis from Louisiana around 1931.

Lay of the Land

Flashdancer

Last week I received notification from the St.Louis Artists’ Guild that my mixed media painting “Flashdancer” was accepted in a juried show titled Lay of the Land. The following is a description from the prospectus announcing a call for entries. “An all-media exhibition open to artists exploring natural or urban landscapes and/or outdoor environments. Diverse interpretations of this them are encouraged.This is a national call for entries.”  The show was juried by Jack Brumbaugh. The opening reception is Friday August 24,2012 from 6pm-9 pm. The exhibition dates are August 24-October 21,2012.I have been excepted in about thirty Five juried shows at the Artist’Guild since January of 1991. This painting is 13.5″ wide by 9.5″ high and is painted with black ink and liquid acrylic paint on bond paper which is mounted on paper board. this painting is based on a photograph I took while visiting New York City in 2010. I painted this image in 2011. My focus was on the signage shapes.