My nephew, Milind, lives in Iowa. I visit him often and every time we explore different parts of Iowa. As a result I have come to know Iowa and its artistic heritage and the work of its famous son artist, Mr. Grant Wood. One time I went to visit Grant Wood’s birthplace Anamosa, and the Grant Wood Visitors’ center there. I also happened to have a few children with me on this excursion (my two daughters, Milind’s two sons and a couple of their friends). This little town has the most beautiful building for the prison. At the Visitor Center I was hoping to see some original paintings by Grant Wood. However all the pictures there were reproductions. I asked the senior volunteer receptionist at the visitors’ center; “Why are there no original paintings here?” She answered, “Original Grant Woods are way too expensive for the center, they would not even be able to afford the insurance on them”.

She did tell me about the Wood family, their farm and his school and other related things from his past. I told her that not being able to see the original works, I was disappointed. At that point she said that the only original thing they have in the town is the artist himself, in the grave by the river. So we all did go to his grave site and were surprised to find not only him, but also his family members’ in close by graves, some of who posed for him occasionally and are depicted in his paintings, like his mother and his sister, Nan.  We paid our respects to all of them. While we were there it was not raining but we could hear loud thunder from a storm close by.  My 10-year-old daughter, Jessica, said that Mr. Grant Wood was trying to communicate with us through the thunder. Somehow, I believed her.

Excursions like this, one time brought us to Elden, Iowa.  This is where Mr. Wood found a little house with the Gothic window, one summer, while he was teaching there. Later he used that house with the Gothic shaped window in his, now most famous American regionalist painting, The American Gothic.  The house still stands in an excellent condition, now that it is on the historic  buildings list and has become a national monument. It is rather isolated with no neighboring houses. They have a few pitchforks there on the back porch of the house for you to pose with, in the front of the house like the famous couple that he depicted in the painting. I had to paint the house in my linear style after these types of experiences in Iowa.