I have no idea how many times I have written a story that begins with the wistful phrase, “When I was a boy. ...” It seems as though it hasn’t been so often that I can’t do it again, but instead of having you re-read it, I’ll just say that I still remember fishing with my grandfather in Raccoon Creek, wading in the shallows while he walked the far banks, wet-fly fishing under the black willow limbs. While he was hoping that a sunfish would take the bait, I scooped up water-tumbled rocks by the handfuls and watched cottonwood leaves float by like miniature rafts.
Those were good times; everyone I loved then was still living, and it didn’t seem to take much in those days to make me happy. Until I began writing, I kept those memories pretty much to myself, thinking all along that others may think that something as simple as skipping stones and watching the light play on moving water was outdated and a bit sappy.
I quit thinking that as readers seemed to approve of my reveries, but how happy I was to connect with a group of my school students, who, it seems have experienced some of the same things that I did so many years ago. Oddly enough, we came to that understanding at the Swope Art Museum last month as we stood near J. Ottis Adams’ “The Iridescence of a Shallow Stream,” an oil on canvas, painted in 1902, the same year that my old fly-fishing grandfather was born.
I know it is reasonably fashionable these days to bash teenagers, to think of “them” as lazy, text-messaging slaves to social media, fast food, over-consumption and self-centeredness. But I work with young people every day of the school year, and although I don’t think I’ll ever figure out their unnatural attraction to cell phones and sleeping late into the day, I can say that some of those who I teach are, for most part, quite a bit like I was when I squirmed in hard-as-rock school desks long ago.
Adams was just past 60 when he painted “Iridescence,” a big, lovely, impressionistic landscape that, ironically, places the viewer in the middle of a fast-moving little Indiana stream, the light playing off the water’s surface in a cascade of blues, golds, and greens. One of the “The Hoosier Group” that included William Forsyth, Richard Gruelle, Otto Stark, and the best-known of the five painters, T.C. Steele, Adams spent much of his time just as the century turned from the 19th to the 20th practicing his craft near Brooklyn, in Morgan County. The painting, which hung for years in the wonderful old Emeline Fairbanks Memorial Library, won a bronze medal at the St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904.
We had gone to the Swope as part of an annual trip I take with my seniors to Terre Haute, not only because so many of my students may never step foot in a museum if I don’t drag them onto a bus and do it, but also because this town has such an underappreciated gem in the Swope. I had asked the kids to discuss any six of the museum’s works in a writing assignment, and although I often hovered to keep an eye and ear on what they were doing, I found that virtually every one of them spent a little extra time looking over Adams’ grand exercise in glorifying the uncomplicated beauty of an Indiana creek.
Not long after I collected the assignment, I sat down at my desk, picked up a red pen, and began to do the slashing and scribbling for which my grading has become synonymous; I have been known to reduce even the cleanest and neatest of manuscripts to a bloody heap of arrows, lines and hypertensive commentary, but I found myself doing a lot more reading than marking when ‘Iridescence’ became the topic.
Among the third of the group that commented was Adam Byers, who probably can’t tell you himself just why he’s taking his fifth class with me in these past two years. He said the painting brought back “a lot of childhood memories” for him. Mary Jo Gruner, who always seems to have a smile on her face, whether it be sitting at her school desk or standing at the cash register at the local grocery, wrote, “I was really drawn to the light on the water.” Adam Wilson, who, when away from the classroom and gymnasium, spends most of his spare time in the woods, added, “The painting connected to me so much. It reminded me of the time I spent playing and fishing as kid.”
Cameron Frazier, our graduating class president, said the painting “reminds me of good times, just relaxing by the creeks in the summer and fishing with friends.” Kori Wood, who’ll be the class valedictorian, proved why she’s no stranger to the Honor Roll; her entry read: “I felt a sense of nostalgia, of wanting to return to a stream I remember as a child. ... It flooded my mind with memories.”
Sara Dickey, who I imagine has spent a day or two wading and rock-skipping too, wrote, “The painting makes me wish it was summertime and that we were all at the creek.” Classmate Megan Higgins added that “there didn’t seem to be a whole lot going on in ‘Iridescence,’ ” but she liked it anyway.
The great Midwestern writer, Hamlin Garland, first gave Adams’ circle of painters its name when he helped collect pieces for an art show in Chicago in 1894. He wrote, “These artists have helped the people of Indiana to see the beauty of their own quiet landscape.”
My kids are far from being art experts after a single visit to a museum, nor am I, despite hours wandering the galleries of the Swope. But for a group that has, for the most part, grown up in small, small towns, and on farms, never very far from the sounds of tractors and running streams and gravel roads, I know of at least one artist they clearly understand. After all, they can still feel the cool water of his paint running across their feet.
Mike Lunsford can be reached by email at hickory913@aol.com, or c/o the Tribune-Star at PO Box 149, Terre Haute, IN 47808. You can learn more about his writing by going to his website at www.mikelunsford.com; he is currently working on his fourth book. Information for this column about J. Ottis Adams was taken from “Swope Art Museum, Selected Works from the Collection” by Laurette McCarthy, available for sale at the Swope at 25 S. 7th St., Terre Haute.
News
Related Photos
-
Tribune-Star columnist Mike Lunsford
Discussion
MIKE LUNSFORD: The wonders of wading in ‘The Iridescence of a Shallow Stream’
- News
-
-
Not just graffiti
The scribble of chalk brushing up against a stone wall could be heard Wednesday as children showed their creativity at the 14th and Chestnut Community Center. The messages on the wall were straightforward: “We are ... artistic, amazing, hope, funny, unique.”
-
An honor for the ages
“Until they all come home” are the words written on the concrete floor clearly visible to workers and onlookers as part of the centerpiece to the new Montezuma Veterans Memorial that was set in place Wednesday afternoon at Aztec Park in Parke County.
-
Forget the cellphone, enjoy the summer
The third rail post from the left on the second-floor patio. By holding a cellphone at eye level, with your left hand, while standing perfectly still, without blinking, a faint one-bar signal was possible. Possible. Otherwise, there was no connection to the outside world at this retreat spot in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, where my wife and I stayed earlier this month
-
National group gives ISU low marks for training teachers
A national research and advocacy group has given Indiana State University — and more than a dozen other Hoosier colleges and universities — low marks for how it trains teachers.
-
Terre Haute Coke & Carbon: Cleaning up a legacy
When heavy equipment starts moving dirt next week at the former Terre Haute Coke and Carbon industrial site, city officials hope a new day will be dawning for a long-neglected part of town.
-
Diversity growing: New census report shows changing face of Indiana
Like the rest of the nation, Indiana is continuing on a trend toward greater diversity as the numbers of Hispanics, blacks, Asians and other minorities are rising at a faster pace than whites.
-
Valley following diversity path of nation, Indiana
Like much of Indiana, the majority white population in the Wabash Valley is on the decline, while minority populations are on the increase.
-
Court lets walkout fines against House Democrats stand
House Democrats who had to pay more than $100,000 in fines after they walked out of the Indiana Statehouse two years ago during a legislative session won’t get the help they sought from the Indiana Supreme Court.
-
Arrest made, victim identified in Rosedale homicide
The victim in a Parke County homicide that occurred last week has been identified as Kathryn A. Bays, 55, of Rosedale.
-
Vermillion industrial park gets award for transition
The Vermillion Rise Mega Park, a former chemical weapons base now an industrial park north of Clinton, has gotten national attention for its rapid transition to civilian from military use.
-
Slight damage from evening storm
Very little damage was reported from a late evening storm that rolled through the Wabash Valley on Tuesday.
-
U.S. 41 lane restrictions
Motorists should expect delays because of lane restrictions on U.S. 41 in Sullivan County next week as a railroad company repairs a rail crossing 1.2 miles north of Shelburn.
-
Back home again: Items from vaudeville stage and Terre Haute native sent to Historical Society
The staff at the Vigo County Historical Museum are excited about the arrival of priceless items used by Terre Haute-native Rose Fehrenbach and her husband, Edward Pierce, to promote their Vaudeville acts in the early 20th century.
-
Husband charged in Archer homicide
Terre Haute Police have found local reports of domestic violence between a Terre Haute man and his wife, whose body was discovered wrapped in a tarp and dumped in an Ohio ditch.
-
National Road panels dedicated
Rewind to the mid-1800s, when the trotting of a horse and buggy on National Road could be heard alongside the voices of people heading west, searching for opportunities.
-
Pence sets agency priorities
Following a directive from Gov. Mike Pence, state agency heads are reorganizing some of their top priorities to better reflect the first-year governor’s “roadmap for Indiana” plan for improving the state’s economy, infrastructure and health.
-
Another I-70 traffic snarl: Three injured in two related crashes
Three people were injured Monday afternoon from a pair of crashes on Interstate 70 that temporarily closed the highway and diverted traffic into Terre Haute.
-
Terre Haute man still hospitalized after scooter/car crash
A Terre Haute man remained hospitalized Monday at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis after his scooter struck a car early Saturday on Wabash Avenue at 25th Street.
-
Overpass repairs causing Interstate 70 lane restrictions
Repairs to the Frye Road overpass in southeastern Vigo County has caused a restriction to the left lane of Interstate 70 between the 13- and 14-mile markers, about two miles east of the Indiana 46 exit.
-
Indiana woman condemned for killing at 15 is freed
A woman who was sentenced to death at age 16 for taking part in the torture and murder of a 78-year-old Bible studies teacher was released from an Indiana prison Monday after growing to middle age behind bars.
-
Grant will let Vigo Library evaluate map collection
The Vigo County Public Library has received a $2,000 grant to evaluate its historic map collection, a library official announced Monday.
-
Four juveniles caught on elementary school roof; one injured jumping off
Police say a juvenile was lucky to have suffered only a broken leg after jumping from the roof of a Vigo County elementary school – dropping about 30 feet to the ground.
-
Farmersburg man sentenced after guilty plea in rape case
A Farmersburg man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to a rape that occurred at his parents’ residence in May 2012.
-
Still no information being released on Rosedale homicide
No new information was being released Monday afternoon concerning a Rosedale homicide.
-
Fathers take time out to spend quality time with children, grandchildren
A big, circular white cloud rose up through the tall atrium as Mike Woods held his 4-year son, Nathan, Sunday at the Terre Haute Children’s Museum.
-
On Friday, hit the park and raise funds for skateboarders
The On-board United Initiative — O.U.I. for short — has scheduled an all-ages fundraising event Friday in honor of national Go Skateboarding Day.
-
STATE OF THE STATEHOUSE: Sentencing law could benefit juveniles
Monica Foster is a longtime public defender who’s been pushing uphill in the legal system for a long time. So, when she says the General Assembly is making progress protecting the rights of the disenfranchised, it’s worth stopping to listen to her.
-
Mastering the art of Gardening
The Wabash Valley Master Gardeners group gathered over the weekend to marvel at each other’s gardens on its annual garden tour. The event was a chance for master gardeners to showcase their labor of love, meanwhile sharing stories about their plants.
-
RESTAURANT INSPECTIONS: June 17, 2013
The Vigo County Health Department inspected the following food establishments May 28-31:
-
Lawn mower fire destroys barn
A lawn mower that caught fire was cited as the cause of a fire that destroyed a single story barn Sunday in the 2000 block of North Chamberlain Street, said Harold Osborn, assistant fire chief of the Lost Creek Township Fire Department.
- More News Headlines
-
Time Lapse: Rebuilding Bridge Post-collapse
Ohio Woman Accuses 3 of Holding Her Captive
Tiger on Sergio: 'It's Time to Move On'
Hunt for Ex-Teamster Boss Hoffa's Remains Ends
Fans Cheer Dramatic Heat Comeback
Raw: NASCAR Driver Jason Leffler Dies in Wreck
James Gandolfini Dies at Age 51
Raw: Baby White Rhino Debuts at Australian Zoo
Robot Action Connected to Human Thought
Car Crash in NYC's East Village Injures 8
Rain Damages Brazil Soccer Stadium
Raw: Heat, Spurs Back on Court Ahead of Game 7
Ex-NFL Star Chad Johnson Out of Jail
Fmr. TWA Flight 800 Investigators Want New Probe
Failed Cuba-to-Florida Swimmer Won't Try Again
Aug. Trial Set for Ohio Man in Triple Kidnapping
Obama Renews Call for Nuclear Reductions
Raw: Massive Protests Fill Brazilian Streets
Unusual Heat Wave Bakes Alaska
Police at Patriots Tight End's Home for 2nd Day
Paula Deen Admits to Using N Word
Rihanna Hits Fan With Microphone
Men's Wearhouse Founder Fired
Miss Utah Explains Rambling Response
Exclusive: Locklear & Seymour Lock Lips
Miami Heat Wins in Overtime
Raw: Arizona Wildfire Scorches 8 Square Miles
Fists, chairs fly in restaurant brawl
Journalist Michael Hastings Dies in Fiery Hollywood Crash
Hairy Leg Stockings Aim to Deflect Male Attention
Inside Kim Kardashian's Premature Labor
Three Charged for Enslaving Mother and Daughter
Raw: Huge Fire Near Yosemite National Park
Spurs' Popovich has no problem with Spurs' intensity
RAW: NSA Director Says 50 Plots Foiled
Paige Butcher Scorches on Hawaii Beach
Video: worst way to load cargo onto a plane
Never-before-seen footage of '08 Times Square bomber
