conveying scene, witness, labor, humanity and meaning

Strawberry Fields -digital painting / art prints -Dan Beck 2005

I started working on a new art piece - not above - but related. Witnessing the daily harvest of strawberries is actually fairly new to me.

Many of the fields around me were converted last season. The above digital painting is from the previous year but is about trying to convey this incredible scene.

The field workers are always in what look like uncomfortable positions - kneeling, curved backs, stretched out - but I am generally not as close as the portrayal above.

As a witness, it is my goal to both share the awkwardness, the humanity, the dignity and perhaps the dismay - at those people who think that migrant labor is a job that people born in America would actually be willing to do.

I just came back from a trip to New York, and the truth is - it is almost impossible to get summer help from American youth any more.

This is not a political blog, but imagine a world without strawberries.

See Also

• Strawberry Fields
  Options and availability of art prints
• Watsonville Berry Co-op: California Strawberries
  Photos of strawberry harvest - a number thoughout site
• UC Vegetable Research & Information Center
  Images of agriculture from San Joaquin Valley - an education