No Dirt in Dreams
At the Art Institute of Chicago, the special exhibit “America After the Fall: Painting in the 1930s” is worth a visit. It offers nostalgic visions, realistic yet often overly optimistic, and fanciful renderings of a failing agrarian nation in transition to industrialization.
Standing in front of the painting pictured below, I talked with these two women about how this painting titled Gas, by Edward Hopper, looked as if it the gas station had recently opened. The owner was making things just so, but there were no customers. The place looked brand new – no oil stains.
The oldest of the two, pictured at right, smiled and said, “Well, it’s a dream. And there is no dirt in dreams, is there?”
Guy D. Johnson is a writer and marketing communications professional. Previously an animation studio owner, daily newspaper editor, reporter and photographer, volunteer fireman, railroad bridge gang helper, FM radio station underling and cave guide. He has lived on farmland trusted to the sun and rain; atop a wooded hill; beside great rivers; upon an arid, high plateau; and at the subtropical coast of the Gulf of Mexico. For 20 years, he worked and wrote in New Orleans.
I absolutely love this piece. You know I’m a fool for Hopper. I remember our trip through!