Seeing the world around us
Impact and the need to create
Continuing with the theme of how art is created. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to show a work just created - "Spinach Harvest". Pieces on the blog won’t necessarily appear for purchase immediately on the website, but are being offered as something fresh and hopefully insightful.
Surrounding my home are agriculture fields. Next door they are harvesting spinach. When I first looked, I noticed that the crew was on its knees in the wet fields bunching as they harvested. I thought about day in and day out harvesting spinach and what that must be like. The workers were energetic, goal oriented, quick and seemingly tireless 10 hours later.
The piece was time consuming to create, with all the workers, spinach, and details which I wanted to be right; but only appropriate for such a subject. To be successful, I needed to create something beautiful, dignified, and a little difficult to watch. Our food supply requires real people working long hours generally unnoticed.
From an artistic perspective, I am not sure who this might come from, I choose to think it is original. Although, there are undoubtedly many influences, I am including this piece by Claude Monet from the Museum of Modern Art as an example of use of multiple colors in mountains.
The truth is art comes from many places too numerous to choose from, but sometimes it tries to communicate something more than just seeing.
See Also
- Every Worker an Organizer, Part 1
Photography and stories of farm workers by David Bacon - The Farm Workers Website
Education in the life of the farm worker - The Daily Texan - Focus -César Chávez - migrant farmer to movent leader
Some history in current news of César Chávez and the UFW
