Whut? The Grapes of Wrath on the Banned Book List?

Matter Deep Publishing ran a few articles last week featuring stories about our crew's favorite banned books. I thought I would cross post mine here, since the book definitely influenced my work. 

“This is the beginning—from “I” to “we”. If you who own the things people must have could understand this, you might preserve yourself. If you could separate causes from results, if you could know that Paine, Marx, Jefferson, Lenin were results, not causes, you might survive. But that you cannot know. For the quality of owning freezes you forever into “I”, and cuts you off forever from the “we”.~Chapter 14, The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck.

The Grapes of Wrath is one of my favorite novels. I was surprised to see it on the banned books list. It has been challenged repeatedly over the years for containing vulgarity and for “inappropriate sexual references”, for example: a minister recounts how he took advantage of a young girl.

I read this book and several others, including The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, that helped me understand a truth about the nature of the world. The concept is that change on any level is difficult, turbulent, painful, and sometimes oh-so-very necessary. It doesn’t matter if the change is on a personal level, a social level, or a clash in weather systems. Change will come and it’s going to cause drama. Yet, there is hope that we will come out the other side, changed for the better and stronger for having lived through a trying time.

As a artist, a figurative oil painter, the concept influenced an entire body of my work. At the time, I was experiencing changes of growth in my own life and watching my children grow into adulthood. These experiences, along with the gelling of the concepts that came out of reading The Grapes of Wrath became The Awakening Series. 

On the Wing, Awakening Series, oil on panel. 40”x61”, 2003

How sad if this book had indeed been banned and I would not have been inspired to create this series. The Grapes of Wrath is more relevant than ever as our country is coming out of the Great Recession. It’s a story that is as timeless and important as change itself.

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Art Calendar Magazine changes it's name to Professional Artist Magazine

"Voice of the Tiger" has won 1st Place in Art Calendar's March 2011 Portrait Cover Contest. It is featured on the inaugural issue of the magazine with it's new name.

One of my paintings was on the cover once before, in January 2006.

This painting, “Fledgling Portal”, (Oil on Masonite, 38”x53”, 2003, Collection of David and Nicole Holcombe), was the third in my "Awakening Series". I did a total of eight pieces that explored growing up and life transitions.

In “Fledgling Portal” a girl stands wearing fairy wings; she is loath to give up the playfulness of her childhood. Behind her is a drapery with aluminum foil stars as the real world beckons from beyond. The clown is a reminder of scary things from our childhood that make us wonder what frightening things await on the other side of childhood.

This Awakening Series is not merely about one stage in life. I began this series as I was contemplating making the transition to full time fine art.

The young people in these paintings are stands in for every man about to embark on a big change in life, moving from one "stage" (the drapery with foil stars) to a bigger world beyond.

Symbols abound through-out the series, "Jet City" for getting there fast, a clown for scary things unknown, a goldfish in a bag, maps, empty nests, fast cars, and big cities.

It's like most of my work which is about life transitions, "change" which is the only constant for each of us. All these ideas came together in a very unconscious way, a percolating of ideas, the process that I love about making art.

“The Quickening”
Oil on Masonite, 40”x61”, 2003, from the collection of the artist

A young girl on the brink of womanhood...she is confident as she faces the world with her steady gaze and calm demeanor.  The lily is a Christian symbol of purity often associated with the Virgin Mary, but before that it was associated with the goddess Aphrodite, appropriate for a coming of age young woman. There are storm clouds on the horizon, a sure sign of the turbulence that must accompany all life transitions. 

“On the Wing”

Oil on Masonite, 40”x61”, 2003, from the collection of the artist

A young man is called by a world that is at once exciting, frightening, and unknown.  The boy is sure and confident.  The nest can have two meanings, the masculine role of builder, or the traditional image of the empty nest as a home left behind.

“New Frontiers”
Oil on Masonite, 38”x53”, 2003, Private Collection

Growing up and leaving home...  the young man is wearing a child’s cowboy hat in answer to the question “So, what do you want to be when you grow up?” Fences represent those things that hold us back but also protect us from danger. The goldfish in a plastic bag is in a temporarily safe yet precarious stage in his life. All could be easily lost in one small moment of carelessness. 

  

“Make Way”

Oil on canvas, 42”x58”, 2004, Collection of David and Nicole Holcombe

Godzilla and the boy are rampaging through the city with complete and utter abandon. “Look to it well and say you are well warn'd.”~ Shakespeare

 

“Pin-up”

Oil on canvas, 42”x58”, 2004, Private Collection

“Pin-up”, shows an independent girl who will walk her own path even as she is tugged by pressure to conform.

 

“Full Moon Flight”

Oil on canvas,  52”x36”,  2004, Private Collection

The girl is going west, strong and armed for the future  with keys, a map for direction,  and a rabbits foot for luck. Her destiny is as yet undecided, and the Magic 8 Ball reflects the uncertain  nature of life with it’s answers of “yes”, “no”,  “reply hazy try again". Future loves are symbolized by the valentine and the king of heart’s that is hidden away.

 

“Smoke and Mirrors”

Oil on canvas,  42”x58”,  2005, Private Collection

Danger, temptations, free will, secrets revealed, and fire as transformation, the magician divulges nothing.


The following are screen shots of the March 2011 issue of Professional Artist Magazine on news stands soon!