Forest Crow

This past Sunday I attended an art show by my friend, Jon Whiddon, a folk artist who lives in the North Georgia Mountains. I bought two paintings, including the one pictured above. I’ll be hanging it in my counseling office in Canton, along with several other works by Jon.

This photo, from Jon’s website, does not do the painting justice. For one thing, the painting is huge – three and a half feet tall and over four and a half feet wide. And the frame is different, a larger, darker frame, itself a work of art, incorporating the colors and rich textures of the painting.

“Forest Crow” is, to me, a haunting, dream-like image. I have always felt an attraction to naked, autumnal trees, especially when seen against a grey sky. It’s an image that has appeared in my dreams ever since childhood, and to see it portrayed so vividly in a work of art – it truly spoke to something deep inside me.

The crow in flight adds to the earthiness of the scene, suggesting to me the flight of the soul against the stark existential realities of life. Not that I find such realities unpleasant. I find a deep beauty in such starkness, and to me this painting reflects that beauty.