Woody Jackson

My work stems from a long and close association with the farms and farmers of the Champlain Valley of Vermont. I was lucky enough to qualify, as a 1970 Middlebury College graduate, to be a farm hand for Avery Carl on his dairy farm. Addison County, the land of Milk and Honey, was far more rural then. All you could see across the flat plain leading to the Adirondack Mountains to the west was the tops of silos dotting every slight rise in the land. Avery milked about 80-90 cows on a good size family farm, but there were still many small places that only milked 30-40 cows. This was a transition period for the old time Vermonters who grew up before electricity and bulk tanks. It was a good time to be an appreciative audience and participant in the annual routines of farming.
            As I chugged back and forth on my John Deere tractor raking hay and pulling hay wagons, I surveyed a vast landscape created by the needs of the bovine creatures roaming the pastures before me.  I loved the simple geometry and contrast of their black and white shapes against the powerful hues of the crops, woodlots and mountains.  The cow was the economic engine of the entire area, the unsung heroine of Vermont. I was predominantly a printmaker at that time and needed to simplify and eliminate unnecessary details from my prints.  My cows are ones that you see as you pass in a car or on the tractor. You don’t see eyes, flies, dirt or other specifics. You simply register black and white shapes. I enjoyed showing a part of a cow or a jumble of connected cow shapes.. These early pieces were printed from cut zinc plates on an etching press.
            The cow and the process dominated my early work. As I have become more involved in painting with gouache and oils, the material led to more emphasis on the landscape, sky and forest.  After a year spent in New Mexico painting mission churches, I returned to Vermont with a new appreciation for the architecture of barns.  Barns are a version of church in their elegance and vertical aspirations. Beautifully made of timbers, they inspire many works of art.
 My recent work has found me in the mountains and valley floor with simply the fields and the skies as my focus. Many things have changed in the last forty years, but the land is still remarkably the same beautiful farm made model. I feel lucky to live here and to be continually inspired right out my window.