Our mythic past is being painted on walls by local artists. In addition to the ones around Cook’s and the old Hunter car dealership, people are painting their houses and stucco perimeter walls. The topics vary, but many show our agricultural past.
The one above is along a street with rocks and weeds growing in front. They create the trompe-l’œil effect Charles Wilson Peale attempted in the painting of a staircase that he mounted in a door frame with an actual step in front.
It’s divided into several sections with the mountains and sunrise behind. In the center is a newly plowed field.
To the left, the crop is a green haze as the seedlings break ground.
To the right, the corn can be recognized
At the very far left, a women is putting bread in an oven.
The divisions that show the crop at different stages also reflect the continuation of long lot agriculture. Even when people have a large field, the dynamics of flood irrigation and perceptions of rightness direct them to plant narrow sections.
Unlike farmers in the Midwest who plow their large fields to the fences to keep down the weeds, local growers ignore the plants beyond the flow of water. In the field below, the same pigweed is growing at the road edge that appears in front of the wall section that shows the corn.
The yellow-flowered áñil del muerto blooming in front of the woman and oven is flowering at the edge of a corn field at the end of summer.
Photographs: The wall is on private property. The corn fields were photographed in different areas this summer.
Notes: Charles Wilson Peale. Staircase Group. 1795.
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