Grandma Moses ~ A True Original

Some artists I have to research before I blog but there are a few that I know more about than I do members of my own family. American folk artist Grandma Moses is a member of the latter group. I'm a fan. I think in part because her story is so similar to that of my own grandmother. Both spent their youth raising children and trying to keep the family farm running. And both were humble, selfless, kind and a bit ornery. They loved art but weren't able to paint seriously until after their children were grown. They were well into their sixties before they finally found time to paint. When most people their age were settling into retirement these two decided to embark on a new career.

I look out the window sometimes to seek the color of the shadows and the different greens in the trees, but when I get ready to paint I just close my eyes and imagine a scene.

Grandma Moses

Life was never easy for Grandma Moses but she was never one to complain. She knew much more sorrow than joy but chose to focus on and share with us only the happy times. By the time she began painting she had buried her husband, mother, father and several children. Knowing her history one would expect to find paintings filled with grief and sorrow like that of Edvard Munch. But she stayed busy and went about the business of raising grandchildren. There was work to be done and no time for depression and mood swings. Her cheerful positive spirit can almost be felt when you gaze into one of her paintings. It's as if she is saying look to the happy times for strength.

I have written my life in small sketches, a little today, a little yesterday . . . I look back on my life a good day's work, it was done and I feel satisfied with it. I made the best out of what life offered.

Grandma Moses

Many people credit luck for Grandma Moses success. But she worked just as hard as any other artist to become a professional painter. Even harder when you consider the fact she began her career after her eyes had faded and hands began to shake. She painted like mad and showed her paintings at whatever venue was available; the country fair, church and the corner drugstore. Places most artists, even during the early 1900's, would thumb their nose at. But destiny can find you anywhere even in a small town at the corner drugstore. In 1938 civil engineer and art collector Louis J. Caldor stumbled across her paintings in Hooksick Falls, New York sitting in a drugstore window and he knew immediately that he had struck gold. He purchased several and tracked the artist down on a small farm where she was raising grandchildren and chickens. He supplied her with professional art supplies and encouraged her to paint. He was an honest man full of integrity. He became devoted to her development as an artist. Caldor believed in her work and began marketing it for her. The rest is history. Within a few years she was exhibiting throughout American, Europe and Japan.

If I didn't start painting, I would have raised chickens.

- Grandma Moses |

Everything that is good about America can be found in a Grandma Moses painting. Home, family, hard work, freedom and honest living. A self taught artist untainted by any other vision than her own. People liked her art but it was her beautiful outspoken honest down to earth spirit that made her a legend. She came to know wealth and fame as an artist but never lost site of who she was and where she came from. Her art remained pure right up 'til the end. Which, in itself is quite an amazing accomplishment.

Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.

Grandma Moses