The Folk Art Of Cactus County #13

A few more pieces completed including one commissioned by Caroline Martin for her new album! The album will be called “For All That I Do Not Know” and although it took me ages to come up with an idea based on that title, once I had it I managed to finish the picture in a day, much quicker than anything else I’ve done up to now. The piece may not be quite right for the album and may not make it to the finished product but I have to say I enjoyed having a framework to work within and am quite pleased with the result, especially as it’s not a picture I would have thought of doing without Caroline’s suggestions, so whatever happens I’ve got something that I’m happy with. I still need to work on the lettering but I’ll make a start on that shortly. I won’t put that directly on the picture but will do it separately and add it digitally later.

I feel a need to explain what’s happening here. The title is “For All That I Do Not Know”: the moths are attracted to the light but they don’t know why; the dog is watching them and has no idea what’s going on; the space picture represents all that we do not know about the universe, science and, for all but a handful of men, what it’s like to walk on the moon. You may recognise it as a picture I’ve done before, it’s called “Commander Cernan Ponders His Final Words As The Last Apollo Astronaut On The Moon” and I included it in this picture as Caroline really liked it. I like the idea of having pictures within pictures and may use this idea again.

These next two I had a lot of trouble taking a photo of as there is glass in the frames and it kept reflecting. Anyway, this photo will have to do for the moment. I painted the frames too by the way. What we have here is “Cactus Motel” and “Evolution”. Those of you familiar with Cactus County may recall that one of the three towns of the county is called Evolution (well done if you did) and it’s where the mineral mines are located, although there is no reference to the mines or mining in this picture as it celebrates the fact of evolution rather than the town which bears its name. And yes it is a fact not simply a theory, unlike certain other non-science based ideas which are insane and do not have any scientific evidence to back them up. Get with the programme people, you know who you are.

I can recommend the Cactus Motel, which you’ll find in the town of Cactus. They have very reasonably priced rooms, which are clean, comfortable and very nicely and uniquely decorated.