THE ART OF FARMING: A NOVEL
BY T.D. MOTLEY
Fiction / Agriculture / Nature / Stewardship
Publisher: Stoney Creek Publishing
Pages: 144
Publication Date: August 26, 2024
SYNOPSIS
Sam Bartlett’s formidable antagonist has four legs. Sol, a miniature donkey, schemes daily to outwit his kindly caretaker. This delightful rural drama regales a symbiosis of plants, humans, dogs and livestock, with wild creatures observing from secluded, weedy perimeters.
Retired from teaching, artist Sam farms thirty acres. His popular paintings of vast prairies at sunset are selling well. He plans to market organic herbs and produce, hiring local after-school teens. Begrudgingly raised on a farm, he once swore that when he grew up, he’d never go back. Time and age break promises.
Elysia boasts a pretty town square, complete with a handsome county courthouse. Sam’s girlfriend, Annie, is a food writer who travels a lot. Bartlett Farm is her sanctuary.
The Art of Farming is a hopeful tale about stewardship of the land, the animals, and of each other. It honors the integrity of agriculture, as expressed in ancient literature and art.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
T.D. Motley writes about art and organic farming. Born in Beaumont, Texas, he has been drawing since the age of three. His family has farmed in Texas since the mid-19th century. For many years, he and his wife, artist Rebecca, marketed their organic, heirloom herbs and produce to North Texas chefs and farmers’ market customers.
Motley is Professor Emeritus of Art and Art History at Dallas College. His drawings and paintings have been exhibited nationally and are included in numerous collections across the U.S. and Texas. He has lectured at the Dallas Museum of Art, the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum in Austin, the Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University, and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth. He is a contributing author for Eutopia and ArtSpiel and has written about mid-century modern Texas artists for DB/Zumbeispiel and the Grace Museum in Abilene. Motley has received Fulbright grants to Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
Motley is the past president of the board of Artist Boat, a Galveston-based nonprofit that teaches students about coastal nature through art and science. He served for several years as chair of the North Texas Fulbright Teacher Exchange Peer Review Committee. Previously, he worked as a printer in the U.S. Air Force, an illustrator for Ling-Temco-Vought Corporation, and a cartoonist for the infamous Dallas Notes from the Underground newspaper. His artworks can be seen at J. Peeler Howell Fine Art in Fort Worth.
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REVIEW
I grew up a farmer’s daughter. My dad didn’t raise organic produce – he was one of those veteran farmers who embraced pesticides and herbicides. He didn’t have an artistic bone in his body that I knew of (although he did enjoy a good book). The part of the land our house was on was actually right next to a highway, even if it wasn’t within the municipal limits of the nearest little town. So my farm experience wasn’t exactly as T. D. Motley’s Samuel Bartlett describes his. But this book reminded me of some of the best parts of my childhood.
Sam Bartlett never intended to go back to farm life. But after retiring from a career as an art professor, he does exactly that, trying to make a go of farming organic produce in a small Texas town. Well-meaning family thinks his choice of crops a bit strange, and it sounds like they don’t really expect much to come of it. But Sam finds his footing with lemon cucumbers, Nantes carrots, and other unique crops not common in his area.
The vignettes that make up Sam’s story are gentle, for the most part. Sure, there’s the occasional farm problem – a chicken set upon by a raccoon, the loss of a faithful canine companion. And a tornado is never welcome, no matter where you are. But all of these events, while things to mourn for a time, are just threads woven into the wonderful tapestry of a life lived closer to the cycles of planting and growing, harvesting and lying fallow, than most people’s.
And there aren’t just plants on the farm. There are animals, too. Sol the miniature donkey, who makes it his goal to get one over on Sam at every possible opportunity, is a delight. He also turns out to be a pretty good shepherd. There are chickens and dwarf Nigerian goats. And as any good country boy or girl knows, there’s a string of dogs in the picture – Murph, Nike, Caesar, and more. The drawings that T. D. Motley sprinkles among the chapters help bring those animal characters to life in my imagination.
I may never go outside and sketch anything. Visual arts are not my gift. But The Art of Farming has reminded me of the need to be mindful, to appreciate the treasures nature brings us, in the form of plants, livestock, and just the occasional moment of breathtaking beauty. This book is a breath of fresh air in a hurried life, and I highly recommend it. It gets five donkeys from me.
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I enjoyed your review of this book. Sam’s story seems quite interesting. Love the 5 donkeys!