Mesquite Blues

Mesquite Blues__6x6 oil study on canvas panel___$150...click art to see details!

There is a double meaning with the title, "Mesquite Blues"...Of course my first thought was the BLUEbonnets, our great state flower of Texas...but when I titled it, I had a painful childhood memory of hobbling all the way home from a friend's house with a mesquite branch stuck in my bare foot. THAT sure GAVE ME the blues! Mesquite trees are full of big thorns. They are certainly pretty (one of the last to bud out in spring, usually just before my beloved pecan trees). Mesquite trees are hard wood and much of our famous Texas BBQ is cooked over mesquite wood. The Native Americans used the seed pods to make flour, too, I think... but these trees are INVASIVE and can take over a pasture in s few short years. They were a constant target for removal on our farm! But the thorns are the worst part. Little branches full of thorns break off and you can't see them in the grass. When I stepped on them I could not even bear to look, but would hop home on one foot....only my mom was allowed to take stickers and such out of my feet...to this day I am a BIG SISSY about getting things in my feet! (For my "non-Texan" friends, it's pronounced "mess-KEET")