Thomas Hart Benton's June Morning.

I never go anywhere alone. After a depressive Saturday morning I finally crawled out of bed and went to the Cummer Museum. Art is one thing that I don't understand. How people can find deeper meanings from paint on a canvas is Japanese to me. When I look at a painting I see exactly what is being shown and nothing more. There is no deeper meaning evident. Being at this museum cranky and solo trying to find a picture I felt connected to was almost impossible. It took me about ten minutes to go through the whole museum. But in one of the last sections I went in there was finally something that my eyes were drawn to. An image that made me want to find the deeper meaning. Thomas Hart Benton's June Morning.

From across the room I could see the bright yellow, pink and red flowers. Taking some steps forward there was even more to like. The overall appearance is a depiction of everyday life. The setting is outside in a grassy area. The sky looks grey but is turning brighter. There is a house in the country whose owner is in the front milking a cow. There is a dead tree that stands bear in the center. The objects that appear closest are a broken fence and the intensely bright colored flowers. All of the objects seem animated and do not seem realistic. The clouds are grey and sharp. Making the viewer feel that something is wrong. It looks like a storm was just taking place. The wind blew the clouds away and is still blowing the grass to the right.

Somehow I related to this painting at the moment. Looking back in the distance in the sky you see that there was a turbulent time. Saturday was such an awful morning. When backing up you see the bottom of the picture. The lush lively flowers show the bright side happy ending. This was my reminder that there is a calm after the storm just like in the picture.

After coming home I thought it would be a good idea to do some research. What was going on at the time Benton painted, June Morning? This would help to solve the mystery of what some of the symbolism was trying to say. Thomas Hart Benton was a regionalist who used art to depict the experiences of an everyday American. In May of 1945 Germany surrendered in World War II. Benton painted his painting to be patriotic. It shows the strength of America at a time of war. It also showed how we overcame it. The man who was milking the cow was his mother's neighbor showing us what