W5

Appalachia is a foreign place in a native land. When listening to Clarence Ashley play the Cookoo on the banjo I understood some element of Appalachia. The trance inducing rhythm of the song took me away to peaks of the cool densely wooded Appalachian mountains. The rhythm of the song was so untraditional yet it was grounded in a style that originated from a place with solid roots, just like the people that live high up and away in the Appalachian mountains. My painting captures my imagination of where this song came from. Of course I had to paint the cookoo that symbolizes a beautiful woman who has a strange yet graceful way about her. She is unexplainably gorgeous and perplexing and can only be explained in a way that cannot be understood. Under the dark sky is the mountains full of mystery and in between them is a road that leads to a place that no one knows.