Pulled out my watercolors the other day. Decided to do a series of barn and country landscape paintings. I love the look of the old barns. I wonder what they looked like in their earlier years the purpose they held and the things they could say if they could talk.. In a way they do talk to you - if you just look. Stop and take in the weathered wood, the missing pieces the rusty hinges.. the silence.. it is a place of peace and a time when things were so much simpler. A time when value was on more than money... It was family - it was a time when families, friends towns pitched in to help each other... what changed what made greed take over, where people don't care about each other, their family, their friends their town... and morals went right along with it. Marriage use to mean somethings vows were taken and honored... Now its like a revolving door - no one cares ... just looking for the next version - fling.. -Jobs - companies use to care about their employees if you worked hard did your job the company appreciated it...and usually your family had or did work for the same company.. NOW... we have employers who treat their employees like robots... they work you many hours past forty, belittle you, to make them feel important - don't expect to pay you for the extra time you put in- you give up holidays, weekends - just to have many years of giving up your family life for work to have them eliminate your job or let you go to hire someone for much much less.. it is these things I see when I look at old barns, buildings, abandon homes... because they are much like us ... they stood strong gave it their all.. and were discarded for something new, something more exciting...I hope some day we learn to listen and see that just because something is worn it doesn't make it worthless.. it makes it priceless... we need to listen more with our hearts and love the precious things around us... And hope that corporations learn to realize the value of someone who has sacrificed family to do a job - so in turn they can provide for their family. I hope when you drive by an old barn, fence post, building or home ... you think back - and think about what family, honesty and love really is all about...
