 About twenty years ago I swore I'd never paint a barn. What more common subject is there? And then there is Wolf Kahn. I think he may have filled the need for barn images in contemporary painting. Anyone who is a fan of Kahn will probably realize that I am too. His work, along with Mark Rothko, Richard Diebenkorn, Russell Chatham and many others, have influenced my work. But I felt no need to produce any barn images. Never say never. A few years ago Darby and I went out to Oregon so she could meet my aunts and uncles and cousins there; Howard and Muriel Johnson, and Reid and Marilyn Johnson, and their families. They live where I dream of living, and well past the age when most people retire, they continue to work as ranchers and timbermen. One of my favorite authors, Jim Harrison, warned against mistaking the character of a place with the character of the people who live there. No worry here. Along with my parents, they are among the few people I admired as a child who I continue to admire as an adult. Darby and I walked through the barns and outbuildings that have been in my mother's family for generations, and I came away thinking if I could paint them the right way maybe they could serve as small monuments to them, and people like them, people who have worked so close to the land. |