New and improved artist statement

Why is the stock market like a bad girlfriend? It let everyone down because of the stock market crash of 1929 which started the great depression, which caused thousands of people to lose their homes and jobs, and many of those people took to the streets and became hobos. My painting explores the relationship between the highway hobos of the great depression, and the Led Zeppelin song “Black dog” These two different parts of American culture share the common theme of the response to false expectations.

During the great depression thousands of people in America lost their homes and jobs because of the stock market crash. They were all let down by a bad economy and many people were in shock because they expected the government to back them up, and keep their lives stable but it failed to do so. With no money and no were to go many people became hobos and began to roam across America hitchhiking rides on freight trains, and looking for work along the way.

When he says, “Didn't take too long fore I found out what people mean my down and out" The singer of Black Dog is also let down, not by the government but by his girlfriend. He had expected that she would be honest and truthful, but he found out that she really just wanted his money. This quote relates to the topic of homelessness during the great depression because they both talk about hitting rock bottom, only in the case of the song the reason for being down and out is a bad girlfriend. I thought that even though the quote and the topic are from two time periods and they are initially about different things they can still go together, and make sense.

For the color scheme of my painting I used browns and grays, I did this not only to represent that this happened before color photography, but to enhance the dusty southern theme that was often part of songs and stories of the great depression. I painted the train stretching of into the distance to show that is going a long way, and to make the overall picture more interesting to look at.