Hay in art ...

The more time I spend wandering the Internet, the more I realize that somebody's already created at least one website for pretty much every single topic known to man. This morning, for example, I stumbled across a site titled, "Hay in Art: A Collection of Great Works of Hay." It's a database of close to 6800 paintings, photos, essays, and poems on the subject of hay ... including no fewer than 177 entries from the state of Montana.

At the head of the Montana list was this 1987 lithograph by Missoula artist Monte Dolack titled, "Points of Interest." Dolack is one of Montana's best-known contemporary artists ... his work is clever and whimsical, and for decades now it's single-handedly kept a big chunk of the state's notecard and poster industry afloat. I enjoy much of it, though it's definitely become a stereotype, and it's important to remember that Montana's art community is far more diverse than that.