After the “Snowpacolypse 2014”, I drove by a cotton field that had recently been combined and had bales of the white stuff lying on the field’s edges. The funny thing was, because of the snow, the field looked like it was ripe for the picking all over agin. It’s funny how two very different “white and fluffy” substances can both make such a tremendous impact on the southern landscape.

Cotton has been a staple crop of southern states, and the source of numerous resources for textile, paper, farming, cooking, and livestock production for years and years. Bostwick, GA houses a working cotton gin that most local students are fortunate enough to tour at least once during their tenure in Morgan County Schools. In doing so, they are able to pay an homage to the crop that helped to pave the way for the prosperity that many people in this area enjoy today.

I feel like this painting does a good job of capturing several characteristics of cotton. The dimensions and textures of the paint strokes in white help to give reference to the fluffiness of cotton. Chris also uses very dark earth tones juxtaposed against the bright white of the cotton balls. This is a stark reminder of what it looks like to ride by a field of cotton in the late fall. The fields are full of white fluffy pillows of cotton, right for the picking.

Cotton can be quite a controversial topic for discussion here in these parts, but there is no denying that it has made, and continues to make a tremendous impact on our world, as it is truly is “the fabric of our lives”.

Chris Cook is a premier southern artist and owner of Madison Studios, a web design, maintenance, and e-commerce and marketing company. For his artist biography, contact information, or to view more of his work, click HERE.