A few days ago I was feeding my daily Facebook addiction- scrolling down with a fevered frenzy -checking out the photos of what my friends were having for lunch, seeing the usual political posts, smiling at the gazillion pictures of cute kids and kitties...I just knew that I was going to stumble upon a treasure if I just kept on scrolling....
Just a few more minutes.... then I will get back to work.. I WILL finish mopping my kitchen floor....
THEN..... I SAW IT.... I SAW THIS:
A Pearl of great Price caught my eye... and captured my heart...
the minute I saw this painting, my fingers that had been adeptly and easily "scrolling down" my Facebook newsfeed became paralyzed... I read what others had commented... I managed to type " Beautiful Work"... and the Artist asked me, " Clay, do you recognize that house? "... of course I recognized it.... and the longer I gazed at this painting... I saw a couple of " additions" to the scenery.
in fact... I can still see them....
on the porch.. in front of the far right window.. I see a silver haired lady in a rocking chair.. dipping her snuff.....delivering her passionate diatribes on the days of King Cotton, FDR,and The New Deal.
She watched Lawrence Welk every Saturday... and she always listened for the Rain Crow.. " I don't need no TV weather man to tell me when we are gonna get rain.. the rain crow gets it right every time.."
I also see.. a little boy... sitting on the steps... his mind is racing toward the creek... planning and plotting an afternoon of sliding down the leaf covered bluff .. a piece of old barn tin waiting to be ridden as a make shift summer day sled... he has heard her stories a million times...
and now that so many years have passed by... that little boy wishes he had listened more closely... he longs to go back.... if only for a moment.. to hear her stories... thank you Susan Howell Graham for taking me back to that front porch.. to the days of fun and frolic .. because of your beautiful painting of the Callaway Farm House... I have heard Granny Winnie telling her stories... and these days.... I am listening.....
Artist Susan Howell Graham, her Father Jimmy Howell; who commissioned this painting as a gift to my Father James Callaway .and... her painting of the Callaway Farm House
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