Week 3

    To play pilgrim for a day I ventured east of Bloomington with my partner into the rolling hills of Brown county. A few minutes after winding across the county line a giant painting easel on the side of the road held a blue arrow pointing us off the main road. At the top of the hill, in late January, wind tore through the leafless hickories and maples to welcome us to the T.C. Steele State Historic Site. Behind a modern visitor’s center and parking lot a shallow red home wrapped in a deck and matching barn lie surrounded by dormant rock gardens. We checked into the visitor’s center and found out we are the sole pilgrims to the Steele home that day. 

    We walked through the gardens and under a trellis consumed by wisteria into the main house. Opening the large wooden door a tour guide leads us into the living room. Before we take any more steps further we are informed that everything in the house is a historical artifact. Nothing in the home had been taken away after the deaths of Selma and T.C. Steele, it was stuck in time. Above the bookcases and carved furniture T.C. Steele’s paintings were hung along the wall. His landscapes of snowy brooks tucked between hills and towering wildflower gardens were all painted on the property the house sits within. In warmer weather one can walk the same “daily tramps” T.C. would walk in attempts to discover a new inspiration in his woods. His paintings have hung next to Monet’s and decorate some of the most important buildings in Bloomington and Indianapolis. Coming to the physical source of T.C’s inspiration, being surrounded by his things, the cabinets his wife designed rose patterns on, and standing in the spot a painting was made was like stepping into his world. 

    We walked across the rock garden into his large studio building. The Steele’s had commissioned a red barn with windows comprising the entire north wall. His paintings were illuminated under the pale winter sunlight as we walked through the seasons on his property. The amber colored valleys in the fall and the pastel scenes of spring T.C. captured in Brown County caused me to want to make return pilgrimages to the Steele home. Making pilgrimages to more exact spots where he painted is what I would certainly do next time I visit.

    Leaving the site I found myself noticing more within the surrounding landscape than on the drive there. Instead of being fixated on the road a herd of deer scattered across a frozen corn field and small homes wedged between narrow hills caught my attention. I felt inspired to take my time on my next pilgrimage, stop like T.C. and capture a snapshot of the land to share with others.