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Robert McKibbin |
We step into the Dallas County Boardroom and see two works by Robert McKibbin. McKibbin, an art instructor at Grinnell College mastered ‘taking a flat, two-dimensional surface and manipulating it into something very personal and special’, stating that it is more compelling today than it was 25 years ago. The pastels on paper depict two iconic images of Iowa history.
Alton School Winter to your right captures the Alton Schoolhouse, which was relocated south of Perry as part of Forest Park Museum. Creating a work of one room school in the winter was a challenge for McKibbin, but the white school, snowy landscape and prairie grasses were indeed captured, and draw the viewer into the work. We see the woods behind the school and the vastness of the prairie is inferred as we glimpse toward the horizon. McKibbin felt the Red Corn Crib, Summer, conveyed the representation of Iowa’s agricultural heritage. McKibbin “selected the red corncrib in summer as a visual contrast to the lightness of the winter scene.
"The crib is set beneath the amazing sort of blue summer sky and clouds.” McKibbin felt “each of them features an important aspect of Iowa—agriculture and education.”
Alton School Winter to your right captures the Alton Schoolhouse, which was relocated south of Perry as part of Forest Park Museum. Creating a work of one room school in the winter was a challenge for McKibbin, but the white school, snowy landscape and prairie grasses were indeed captured, and draw the viewer into the work. We see the woods behind the school and the vastness of the prairie is inferred as we glimpse toward the horizon. McKibbin felt the Red Corn Crib, Summer, conveyed the representation of Iowa’s agricultural heritage. McKibbin “selected the red corncrib in summer as a visual contrast to the lightness of the winter scene.
"The crib is set beneath the amazing sort of blue summer sky and clouds.” McKibbin felt “each of them features an important aspect of Iowa—agriculture and education.”