by Grandma Moses

I’d forgotten all about Grandma Moses until I came across the book, Grandma Moses, by Otto Kallir (Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers, New York, 1973).

Anna Mary Robertson was born September 7, 1860. She married Thomas Moses in 1887.  She died December 13, 1961. Although always interested in maintaining a well-decorated home– within her means– she didn’t begin painting in earnest until her late 70s.  

What a wonderful human being she must have been! 

In 1955 she was interviewed by Edward R. Marrow. He and his crew had come to her home and they filmed her painting. Killir– who was there– describes the interview as not a “matter of questions and answers but an animated give-and-take that did not lag for a minute.”

Here’s the end of the interview:

Marrow: What are you going to do for the next twenty years, Grandma Moses?

Grandma: I am going up yonder. Naturally– naturally, I should. After you get to be about so old you can’t expect to go on much farther.

Marrow: But you don’t spend much time thinking about it or worrying about it. Do you?

Grandma: Oh, no. No. No. You don’t worry because you think, well, what a blessing it will be to be all united again. I’m the last one left of my brothers and sisters… .

Marrow: So this is something that in a sense you have no fear about or no apprehension?

Grandma: Oh, no. Go to sleep and wake up in the next world. I think that’s the way. Did you ever know when you went to sleep?

Marrow: No, I don’t think so.

Grandma: When the last thought came– you didn’t know?

Marrow: No. That’s true.

Grandma: You might wake up the next morning and think, well, that’s what I was thinking about, but you didn’t know when that last thought came. Well, that’s the way you’ll go to sleep.

Marrow: Well, you will leave more behind you than most of us will, when you go to sleep. 

 You can see more of Grandma Moses’ art here.