I’m excited to have finished the very first painting in my new series. This is “Lupita Canning Corn.”
I remember corn harvest time. My brothers and I would pick the corn and pull off the husks. Mom would boil the corn on the cob in big pots on the wood cook stove. She’d dump the corn into the table and we’d eat all we could manage. The smell and taste of fresh corn (and fresh tomatoes!) was heaven.
We had boards with a nail end pointing up through the center. We’d stick the ear of corn onto the nail and cut off the kernels with long knives. Then we’d push the kernels into canning jars and Mom would pressure cook them on the propane stove. We stored the canned corn in a cement block cellar under the house. In the depths of winter, we’d open the glass jars and enjoy the fruit of all our hard work.
My new artwork series is a meditation on my childhood growing up off-the-grid in rural Iowa. My goal is to write a children’s book using this series of 20 paintings as the illustration for the book. Thank you to the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation – BeWildReWild – Community Artist Grant for your generous support of my project.
https://bewildrewild.org/artwork-paintings-childrens-book
Blessings,
Emily Lupita
