So Much Sky, Sometimes

Stephanie Frostad's "The Invention of Sorrow"

This painting is at the Missoula Art Museum and has been recently acquired as part of the Contemporary Collector's Circle. The CCC is a group of individuals who purchase pieces by regional artists which reflect the imagery of the American West. The American West seems to be about the most Romantic phrase I can think of still used in our culture. I'm also surprised by how often it is still referred to as a mythical and poetical ideal. As if all this vast land, this space is our Greece; our country's place for stories to be told as fables and morality tales where characters rise and fall into iconic lessons. Like some sort of Steinbeck in all of us exists as shovel, meadow, depression, water, and work. We live as prairie by day and California by night. Our stories are those of wind over dried land instead of oceans. In our myths, we gave up the sailboat and mast for the automobile and factory. And what is left, is what was left before in Ancient tales, epic pursuits: just a man and a woman trying to love each other, trying to find solace below all this sky.