Allen Saxon

When my mother died at age 96, I placed an old trunk from her home in my attic. Years later I opened it and after rummaging through the old letters, photos and even her school yearbooks, I found this picture on the bottom of the trunk.

Sometime around the summer of my freshman year in high school, I became interested in drawing. The father of a friend taught art classes at Joliet Junior College. I contacted him and he agreed to conduct a Saturday morning sketch class around my rural hometown for myself, his son, and two other friends ( who actually became artists).

I think I was about fourteen when I drew this picture of the farm just outside of town where Routes 126 and 30 split. I was moved that my mother had kept it all those years, but saddened by the fact that I never continued to draw. Trying to capture an image like that now would be extremely daunting, if not impossible.