“We walked rich ground, my family and I.”
This article told of the author’s family’s tie to poor farming ground and what they did with it. His grandparents were poor subsistence farmers and their connection to the land was necessary and difficult. Still, his grandmother raised flowering bushes with big white showy flowers.
I was inspired by Regionalist art of the 30’s. Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton symbolically represented the rural scene during the Great Depression and were the most well known artists of that movement. Because this story is set in the 30’s and 40’s. That style seemed appropriate. I used a pencil sketch as the base art to give a sense of immediacy and informality to the illustration.
The story is illustrated by showing grandma’s bare feet on the ground. This is a visceral connection to the land. Her hoe is a symbol for hard manual labor and her gold 1930’s farm dress is patterned with the white blooms she has nurtured.
