You probably don't need me or Wikipedia to tell you that Grant Wood's American Gothic "is one of the most familiar images in 20th century American art, and one of the most parodied artworks within American popular culture. . . . one of the most reproduced – and parodied – images ever. Many artists have replaced the two people with other known couples and replaced the house with well known houses."
In the picture above, my neighbors Katy and Peter got dressed up and posed in front of an historic Indiana frame house in our neighborhood. Then their talented daughter Emily took a photograph and added her own artistic finishing touches.
Grant Wood's American Gothic is also the inspiration behind a number of American poems:
American Gothic
after the painting by Grant Wood, 1930
These two
by now . . .
ought to be
in mortal time
about their businesses
Instead they linger here
within the patient fabric
of the lives they wove
. . . asking the artist silently
how much longer . . .
a few lines from the poem by John Stone (b. 1936 - )
found in Where Water Begins, 1998
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for more, see
"American / British / Indiana Gothic"
on The Fortnightly Kitti Carriker
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