Family Farm

One autumn day I was photographing around an abandoned farmstead thinking about how it once was someone’s dream home with children playing in the yard. I thought about all the people who are trying so hard to make a living with farming, but just fall deeper into debt. Yet, they keep farming against all odds. It seemed to me that the USA family farm exists with no means of visible support. I used patriotic colors. For the colors of the lettering I used old International Harvester implements colors I remembered seeing on old equipment. The metal roof top reminds me of the hilly landscape I saw around the farm.

The challenge was creating the textures of the various elements. For the red asphalt shingles, I masked the shapes and stippled in paint. The roof top was done mostly with one long brush stroke. I had filled the brush with the colors I needed and rotated the brush as I laid on the colors. I also used stencils I had cut for the lettering and dry brushed in the reddish paint.