Wednesday, June 23, 2010

More about the Fields Project

Tremendous thunderstorms pounded northwestern Illinois all day today, so I hung out at my hosts' house and worked from the images I had downloaded to my laptop from previous days' photo jaunts.

Above, the Rock River, which flows through the town of Oregon, IL. This is the site of the Black Hawk Indian War, the last Indian war fought east of the Mississippi and another shameful episode in American history. Deprived of their traditional hunting grounds when they were pushed into Iowa territory in 1830, the people of the Sauk and Fox tribes, led by Chief Black Hawk, crossed back over the river to hunt, fish and thereby save themselves from starvation. They were met by U.S. Army troops who slaughtered them. Today Lorado Taft's sculpture, the "Eternal Indian" marks the site of this sad event.

This is a scene along one of the county roads I've been roaming each day. Because of all the rain this area has had, everything is lushly green, green, green. I find myself mixing every combination of blues and yellows imaginable to try to replicate the intense emeralds I see.

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