Old Cornplanter

This old farm implement sits in the leaves in Greenfield, Tennessee; the site of my grandfather's boyhood farm. I was looking in his attic one time and opened one of his old schoolbooks where he had written some random thoughts. This is one, "I walked all day behind a mule and my legs is so tired." Now I don't know for sure that this is the very implement that he walked behind that day, but I think it stands a good chance.

Those two upright disks lay down and make marks telling the farmer where he has been. The seed corn would be in those two hoppers in front.

I have painted and drawn this thing many times, but it never fails to catch my eye with all its angles and protuberances and hints of rustic history. This time I caught it in the orange afternoon sun of December. I couldn't figure out how to capture the orange glow on the rusty metal, so I broke from my usual practice and overlaid a little red prismacolor pencil here and there. That did the trick.