Steve Alpert

ART IS a powerful force, although it is much underestimated.   Art affects us deeply, sometimes altering the very course of our lives.  Check this out…

Watercolor by Dean Mitchell

This Dean Mitchell watercolor, “Mr. Earnest’s Pecan Shop” was made as an homage to Mr. Mitchell’s childhood entrepreneurship.  Young Dean and his pals would shimmy up the pecan trees and shake out the nuts, then bring them to the pecan shop where Mr. Earnest would weigh the sack of pecans and then pay the youngsters few cents or dollars.   Dean purchased art materials with his earnings.

Fast forward a few decades.  Dean Mitchell becomes a celebrated and well-known artist.  Dean’s print of the pecan shop is seen by Linda Earnest and her husband.   Linda is a niece of the original Mr. Earnest and the image of the dilapidated old place first shocked her, and then stirred something  powerful inside of her.  The painting causes Linda to recall all the good times she and her family had growing up around her uncle’s store.  She and her husband decide to revive the pecan shop.  They do it!  New floors, new this, new that.  This painting literally changes the course of their lives!

With my producer partner, Tony Cacioppo, I have been producing a documentary on Dean Mitchell.  Dean Mitchell grew up on one side of the tracks in this small Southern tobacco growing town.  Dean has done more than well for himself and was back in his hometown for the opening of an art show at the Gadsen Arts Center.  Linda wandered into the gallery that afternoon while we were setting up.  She told us her story.  We arranged a meeting between Dean and Linda the next the next day at the pecan shop.   

The next afternoon, cameras rolling, we walked into the newly renovated, Earnest Pecan Company.  We introduced Dean and Linda, and they immediately fell into a deep embrace,  hugging hard as if they were long lost family.  It was pure life-affirming  joy.  In this moment of connection of art, time and fate, a circle of life was completed.  Dean Mitchell and Linda Earnest became family.   An entire family altered the direction of their lives because of seeing a painting telling the story of a young artist’s youth.  Just then, a young boy rode up on his bike with a burlap sack filled with fresh fallen pecans.  He hoisted it up onto the scale….

So, the question is, how has art influenced and changed the course of your life?