A new study shows that motorists in this eastern Iowa city are the safest in the nation. Cedar Rapids motorists average an accident once every 15 years, far better than the national rate of one every 10 years.
This makes more sense when you realize that Cedar Rapids is where Grant Wood had his home and studio from 1924 to 1934. It was in this studio that he painted one of the world’s most famous works of art, the icon of middle America, American Gothic.
His dentist posed as the farmer, and his sister, Nan, posed as the farmers unmarried daughter.
Grant Wood took pride in his region and created a painting style all his own. “Technique does not constitute art,” he said. “Nor is it a vague, fuzzy romantic quality known as ‘beauty,’ remote from the realities of everyday life. It is the depth and intensity of an artist’s experience that are the first importance in art.”
I realized that all the really good ideas I’d ever had came to me while I was milking a cow. So I went back to Iowa.
One of his well known works, Young Corn, was used for the Iowa Sesquicentennial Commemorative stamp.
Another well known work, Arbor Day, is now on the back of the new Iowa Quarter.