This is an art print of a digital illustration that I made using Procreate.
This piece is a modern-day take on a 1993 painting by James Wallace Baker titled “Saturday Morning in Colonial Hills”. His scene included a line of houses with manicured lawns; neighbors swarming a yard sale; and a homeowner readying for someone’s 40th birthday. In the 90’s, most of the homes in Colonial Hills, Worthington had a print of this painting.
I grew up in Colonial Hills, and after moving back to the neighborhood in my 30’s, I wanted to celebrate by recreating Baker’s painting and updating it for the times.
It was extremely important to me to showcase the diversity of our neighborhood, as we have many residents who feel underrepresented, who deal with the threat of discrimination based off any number of identifiers. I asked our community members before starting this piece what they wanted to see represented:
“Include brown, black, Asian people. We live here too.”
“How about the seniors who live here? Taking grand kids to the playground?”
“Not everyone runs! Some walk. Some bike. Some sit on their porch.”
One of my favorite mornings in Colonial Hills is our 4th of July celebration, when families are out building floats for the kiddie parade while runners race through the hills in the annual 5k. I enjoy memorializing the small moments of joy and togetherness that we share, amidst the ongoing trials we face as individuals and as a community.
My hope is that this piece brings as much joy to Worthington residents as James Wallace Baker’s piece did in the ‘90s.