Roots of Renewal
Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa
6 September – 14 December 2003
Inventive men (detail) 2003, enamel paint on wood, 250 linear feet
My work for Roots of Renewal included 250 linear feet of signboards, hand-painted with phrases extracted from a 1909 book, “Handy Farm Devices and How to Make Them,” by Rolfe Cobleigh. The messages alternate practical advice with moral admonitions such as, “never confuse board foot measure with square feet; cheerfulness is as contagious as the measles; the room in which to kill cattle and hogs should not be less than 15 feet square.”
Together with Orlan Mitchell, a retired Congregationalist minister, I built a dozen or so of the “simple but valuable things” illustrated in Cobleigh’s book. These included, among other things, a feed hopper, a fleece box, and a gate that won’t sag. We painted the objects the same colors as the signboards—white, grey, green, yellow and brown. After the exhibition installation was completed, I scattered our handy devices among the other artworks in the show.
Watering rack for hens, 2003, painted wood and enamel pan, 18 x 12 x 18 inches
Exhibition view with Watering rack for hens
Oregon sorting table (source book illustration)
Oregon sorting table, 2003, mixed media, 38 x 58 x 42 inches
Inventive men (detail), 2003, enamel paint on wood, 250 linear feet
Related reading
Roots of Renewal: An Exhibition and Community Partnership, Grinnel, Iowa, 2003, Lesley Wright, et al., Faulconer Gallery, Grinnnell, Iowa, 2004