Artwork of the Week: April 21
“What a strange thing is memory is. Memory is history recorded in our brain, memory is a painter, it paints pictures of the past and of the day...life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.”
- Grandma Moses, My Life’s History
Beloved artist Anna Mary Robertson Moses, spent much of her life creating. As a young mother of five, she spent what little free time she had entertaining her family with cross stitches of idyllic scenes of the Virginia and New York countrysides where she lived. Her work was consistently infused with colors and patterns similar to that of textiles, often reflecting the stories and places of her own life. At age 80, when her arthritic hands were unable to cross stitch any longer, she confidently took up painting. With the art world moving towards Abstract Expressionism, she maintained a “folk art” style which for many expressed a more traditional America. Her widely acclaimed works soon attracted the attention of Hallmark, which acquired the rights to reproduce her paintings on greeting cards, quickly making “Grandma Moses” a household name.
Grandma Moses's artwork was deeply influenced by her life experiences. Yet, her paintings never seem to carry a negative tone, despite the challenges she had to endure as a tenant farmer. This remained true to the tradition of “memory painters,” an art movement primarily focused on memory, nostalgia and simplicity over harsh realism. The lighter tone of memory painting is evident in this painting as a young boy stands with his fishing net near the water’s edge. Cows watch from the other side, among the calm water and the green trees.
