Woody Guthrie

I'm a dust bowl refugee,
Just a dust bowl refugee,
From that dust bowl to the peach bowl,
Now that peach fuzz is a-killin' me.

This week is in three parts and I didn't really expect that to reveal as much about me as it did. My work here came together in many unexpected ways. The pencil portrait was my first attempt in this class to look straight at history, a Walker Evans photograph of a 'dust bowl refugee' and capture an expression or strong personal feeling, which can so often be diluted by the passing of time. The collage is more expressive in its fragmentation. The disembodied legs, the blue jeans, the listening at the keyhole.. This leads on to the overpainted piece, which I now see as a nod to the Leadbelly painting last week. These two parts were loosely based on This Land is Your Land. It's such a beautiful song, but I didn't really believe the sentiment. After learning that this song was intended as a kind of parody, it seems bittersweet the way in which it has been appropriated as a bastion of American patriotism.