The Stories
Doris had a fascination with cultures, especially lesser-celebrated rituals and traditions that added richness to community life. Doris travelled extensively with her husband, Tom, and loved to paint scenes captured in photographs from her travels. Doris’ experience of other cultures sometimes translates as a somewhat storybook depiction. A reverence for life-as-tapestry comes through in these images, viewed through the lens of the fascinated and enamoured outsider.
Baptism on Lake Miccosukee, FL
Around 1940, Doris and Tom were invited to a baptism by one of their employees at their chicken farm in North Florida. Dad was an avid (published) photographer and took the photo and Mom used as her inspiration to record this wonderful scene and experience.
Cane Grinding
Doris loved the beauty of the countryside and fascinated by the people who lived there. As a child in rural Iowa, while moving from there to Orlando, Florida in 1922 in a Model T, living among the orchards and celery farms surrounding her as a teenager, and the living on a chicken farm in North Florida as a new wife and mother greatly influenced her joy and sensitivity to the beauty of the countryside and her fascination with the people who lived there. This piece, entitled “Cane Grinding” depicts the process of grinding sugar cane in order to prepare it for making molasses.
Making Molasses
In “Making Molasses,” Doris accurately depicts life on a farm. However, she added the background mountains for artistic effect.
A Street in the Near East
“A Street in the Near East” was based on a photograph Doris saw in a magazine – probably National Geographic – and was given as a gift to her sister-in-law.