When’s the last time you stood transfixed by art?
The experience commonly happens in art museums, of which we have a few here in the populous eastern third of Kansas. My favorite painting within a day’s drive is “The Homesteader” by N.C. Wyeth, at the Wichita Art Museum. Wyeth’s work was created in 1930 as an illustration for a magazine short story, but it transcends the forgettable tale it accompanied.
I can’t visit the Wichita museum without becoming lost in the Wyeth painting. Perhaps it’s the struggle of the young farm woman, the cottonwood stave beside her, the fresh grave at her feet. The wind whips her auburn hair, the hill is green with new grass, the stave has sprouted branches, and the blue prairie sky arches above her…