In the Pasture, Julien Dupre

I love this painting. The movement, the way the cow's ears make it obvious it's interested in something WAY on the other side of the field, the hapless milkmaid, the wooden shoes, everything.
About a year before I started this blog, I was thinking about going to seminary to get my master's in counseling so I could counsel at a church. Asbury Seminary seemed a very good choice and they invited me to a preview weekend. Mom and I packed up, I took my first (terrifying) propeller plane ride, and we made our way to scenic Wilmore, Kentucky.

Readers, if you are feeling a bit down on America, if you feel like perhaps you need to hie yourself to another country whose aims at progress are not constantly encroaching on rural beauty, take a trip to Wilmore. It was early April and it was freezing, but the grass was so green and there were stone fences everywhere. The hills rolled on and on, and I fell in love with Kentucky.
Sadly, an hour or two on campus convinced me that I was not Asbury material...or it wasn't Kate material...we just didn't mesh and I don't know why.

We spent a lot of time driving around. We went to Berea, the state's folk art capitol (love love love love love) and on our last day we drove around Lexington. We stopped at Transylvania University and took the obvious Dracula pictures. Then we found the Kentucky State University art museum and I saw this painting. Well, actually, I think I saw it on the promotional street lamp flags outside. Anyway, I spent the whole weekend looking for a souvenir worthy of such a beautiful trip, and a poster of this painting, carefully packed in a tube and carried on just in case, which I proudly displayed on my dorm room wall all year long.

It's coming with me to grad school, of course, and though I have a tiny tiny room, I'm determined to find wall space for it!