204 Rainbow Lane - The American Dream
by Steven Lebron Langston
Title
204 Rainbow Lane - The American Dream
Artist
Steven Lebron Langston
Medium
Painting - Digital Painting
Description
204 Rainbow Lane - The American Dream --- My great grandfather, on my mothers side, was Southern to the bone. He, like so many others, owned his land, his home and his life. It was not unusual for, what was considered poor at the time, the southern families to have enough land to plant the years supply of food. It was the norm, at least in the deeper hills of Tennessee. As time passed and my grandfather raised his young, he carried on the tradition but, there were pressures to change. Still poor, by most standards, he cut the wood for the winters fire, sowed and reaped the gardens gifts and held on to the land given. It was almost 100 acres of country beauty that had kept three generations alive. Changes were coming though both in family and dreams. By the third generation, time had changed so much that planting was a thing of the past. The land, once owned by the poor, is now own by the rich. The very land that my forefathers bled upon, is now filled with the American dream. As family values changed, so did the value of the land. What my Great Grandfather purchased the entire dream for, a half an acre sell for now. To drive there and see where I use to play, where my fort was, where the dogs freely roamed, now 1000 houses. What made it even harder, the money generated by the land was taken from the family, wasted and spent, by the greed of one. My only tangible memory is my Grandmother's Bible given to me when she passed. I drive there some days, tears in my eyes, trying to hold on to the memories that are slipping away. The trees are gone, the spring where the water was drawn, now passed through concrete. No one that lives there could understand, they live on my family's memories, my family's hardships and my family's dreams. When I pass, those memories will die with me and the land, no one will ever know that it was home. The American Dream, the tradition of memories generated by a constant, is changing forever. I miss it dearly, and often reminded when I smell the honeysuckle's sweet smell again. It is why I paint, not to sell but, to hold on to what I am loosing or have lost. I can go there, I can live there again, if only for a moment. Love, family values, all I represent in different and unusual ways, all for the same reason. I miss it and I do cry! God Bless!! Steven Lebron Langston
Uploaded
May 19th, 2013
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