Midnight Field
gouache, silk thread on paper, 38x58.5
2007
Artist Maysey Craddock
From the collection of David Lusk and Carissa Hussong
Midnight Field is one of the more personally significant examples of Craddock's works based on photographs she takes of actual sites, as it is based on a large oak tree in southern Alabama where her family has had a home for several generations. Standing in the middle of an empty field, the tree has a quiet dignity and resilient strength. In her own words "Working with imagery of the Gulf Coast's storm-battered trees is a way of memorializing a landscape that is in constant flux. This place where the tree is, Perdido, is a kind of spiritual home for me, but it is also vulnerable to the ravages of hurricanes, tropical storms and rampant development. Bringing the trees and their stalwart beauty into my work has helped me to make sense of the constancy and inevitability of change. The blue and white insinuates a hauntedness, and the stark contours underscore the grace of this ancient live oak." Craddock has featured in exhibitions locally, nationally, and abroad for over 15 years, and is one of a number of artists working out of the Medicine Factory complex of studios and exhibition spaces in Downtown Memphis.
