Sprouted Sweet Corn 3

Sprouted Sweet Corn 3

7 9/16 x 3 9/16 x 11/16"

Oil on gessoed wood

Finally a new painting! Time has been limited in my studio due to the change from the freedom filled days of summer to the regimented schedule of three different school times and locations. We're starting to get it all figured out and settled in, and now I feel like I can settle back into my own work. There are still tomatoes sitting on my counter waiting to be dealt with, but I'll get to them eventually.

(Photo by T. Collins 2006)

After my first son was born, I was working part time as an Objects Conservator at the Field Museum in Chicago and I LOVED my job. I felt like I had a perfect balance between work and family. I spent more than half the week caring for my son, but I would practically skip to work where I also felt challenged and fulfilled working on exciting projects that used the skill set I spent years learning and refining in grad school and beyond. Chicago however, proved difficult to navigate with a baby on a very limited income and it didn't fit the lifestyle that we wanted for our family. It soon became clear that we would likely move back to Iowa where nearly all of my family and my husband's family was located. The thought of walking away from such an incredible job to become a full time mom was often scary and sad. I comforted myself with the idea that I would have time to paint. The first subject that I was going to explore was corn. We would be moving back into the heart of farming country where the primary crop was corn. I would have ample subject matter to observe for several months of the year. I envisioned rich paintings of volumptuous golden kernels nestled in colorful, textured leaves. When I was designing compositions and thinking about how to manipulate the texture of the paintings, I referred to my future creations as my corn paintings.

Then came baby number 2 in 2008 and sleep was something that filled in the gaps between feedings, diaper changes, playtime, three square meals for number 1 and all the other household tasks. Painting? No. 

And then came baby number 3 in 2010. Everything outside of our door stopped for a little while and in between all the chaos I tried to savor the good moments and give a little time to each child. 

Now I have one in kindergarten everyday, one in preschool four afternoons a week and one little snuggle bug in a mom's morning out program one morning a week. Life has changed so dramatically and so quickly that when I take a moment to think about it my head begins to spin. 

In the past six years I did not have much time for the paintings that I daydreamed about when we were leaving Chicago. It was a lot of time however, to ruminate on the subjects of gardening, agriculture and nutrition. In the beginning the paintings that I was imagining were just something that I thought would look nice. They didn't hold much meaning for me beyond acknowledging our change in location. The paintings that I'm working on now come from my passion for gardening. They are wrapped up in the anticipation I feel every spring when I stick the seeds in the ground and the hope that I will be able to feed my family safe, healthy food straight out of our yard. I really like how my subject matter changed over the years, and yet it didn't. I'm still doing my corn paintings, it's just the angle and the composition that have changed.