The First Painting


FOR A WHILE Thursday morning, I worry that we will not find sunflower fields. Yes, we have information, but then we get more, and more and more, and it's all contradictory. 

No sunflowers on I-90 

Great sunflowers on I-90. 

Go north! 

Don't go north - they're not in bloom there yet! 

So we choose the middle path, heading out on I-90 and planning to go north if we don't find fields along the highway. 

But first, we go to the Corn Palace, in Mitchell (much more on the Palace below). It's truly fun, amazing, mind-blowing - and has a great gift shop. 

Then, having collected even more contradictory information at the Corn Palace, we continue west on I-90. 

There's construction - it has been one of the hallmarks of this trip, construction in every state, on every road - and here on I-90, the eastbound lanes are closed and shunted onto the westbound roadway, so there's two-way traffic in the one lane, divided only by small poles. 

We come up on the exit for Reliance, and as soon as we pass it, we see a sunflower field! Many of the flowers are done, bent over, many petals already gone, but it's the first one we've seen, and it's pretty good - not great but pretty good, and - WE HAVE PASSED IT! 

We can go to the next exit, but that's 13 miles up the road, and Carol Baney says she has a better idea. She checks for traffic front and back, slows to a crawl and does a total U-turn on I-90. We get off at the Reliance exit, find a place to pull over, and I begin to paint.

I find that I have issues. Some, I have anticipated - it's hard to capture a large landscape, a big idea, powerfully on a small canvas. It's windy (I knew it would be windy, though as the day goes on, I have to say I didn't think it would be as windy as it is). I didn't anticipate that the canvas would be too small to be held tightly on the easel. I didn't anticipate painting curving stems, either! 

But I make my way through, happy to be painting in the bright sunshine and in front of a yellow(ish) field, and I end up with a painting I like very, very much! 


My painting in the landscape


My trusty assistant and daredevil driver! 

***
The Corn Palace


THIS PLACE IS AMAZING! It's pretty much the heart of Mitchell, South Dakota, and in addition to being a tourist mecca, it is a gym and exhibition hall, hosting all sorts of games and events. It's owned by the town, and there's no entry fee. It's Free! Click here to get to the website.

The building is not made of corn, but of brick and mortar. But on the walls, inside and out, people have used corn (and other vegetables) to make gigantic murals. On one side of the building, the work was in progress, but we are there before it begins, so there's no one to tell us how the cobs are attached, the designs chosen, etc. 

The murals on the outside change every year, and apparently, every year, there's a different theme. This year, it's the circus. The murals, as you can see from the photo of Carol above, are huge! And they are very graphical and fun. It's really a fantastic place. 

There's a live web cam, too, the Corn Cam, which, sadly, I don't find out about until after we leave. 


During the afternoon, we find more sunflower fields! I paint more, and we have more adventures, so look forward to the next blog post. Let the sunflowers begin! 


This was an early Corn Palace, possibly the first one.

Then gift shop is on the basketball court. Every once in a while, a basketball smacks into
 a mural, and it has to be repaired. 

School kids work on the murals in the summer, and we are eager 
to watch the work, but we are too early. If you click on this photo (or any) and enlarge it, you can see the cobs and other vegetable matter used in the murals. 


***
Person of the Day! 


IT'S ARLENE, queen of the Corn Palace. She greets us at the door and gives us all sorts of information about the palace and also about herself. She and her husband had a huge farm - 1,000 acres, I think. Her husband went into the hospital for some minor problem, and got an infection where the IV went in and died at the age of 53. Her kids took over the farm, she tells us, and she moved to town. She smiles broadly when she says this, and we can tell that she is happy with her life. It's way easier than farming! 



***
Dog of the Day

Oddly, I am not finding dogs on this trip. Not real dogs, at least. This German Shepherd cutout was guarding the RV Hall of Fame. I will keep my eyes open for a dog of the day. Meantime, send a photo of your dog to me at carrieBjacobson@gmail.com, and your dog might end up as the DOD! 





 

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