George Washington Carver

I’ve been on a journey with George for a few years now; taking me back to 1927 and his patent for a novel method of producing Prussian Blue, and also forward into 2127 where others will still marvel at his work at Tuskegee University and beyond. We toss around the term visionary often, but he truly was one, planting seeds of ingenuity we’re still trying to germinate. Like most, I’ve known him as “the peanut guy” for much of my life. [Insert more about his more standard biography. Also folklore on how he got his name. He is both wildly famous and roundly misunderstood. 

Countless high schools, parks and housing complexes are named for him. He even has an official ‘day’ at Iowa State University, as its first Black graduate.  If you name it, there seems to be a story that he did it–crocheting, writing, cultivating crops, singing, painting, public speaking, experimenting, teaching and mentoring. He is the Washington whose palette inspired this installation; the range of blues, salmons, creams and chocolates ​are what he offered to farmers in rural Alabama to paint ​and beautify their homes.