Happy birthday, Grant Wood!

Grant Wood was born on Feb. 13, 1891. If he hadn't inconveniently died in 1942, he would be 130 this year. His iconic painting "American Gothic" was chosen for our 5th Ripoff challenge in 2011. The twist was that each Ripoff artist had to do their version in the style of another dead artist.

Ripoff Artist Terry Irvine, a former brewery brat, agrees with Wood's sentiment, "You can do anything with beer that you can do with wine. Beer is great for basting or marinating..." In honour of Wood's birthday, let's get basted and marinated. Cheers!

Gang photo from our successful heist of "American Gothic". Left to right: Kurt Hutterli, Dianne Birnie, Barb Levant (seated), Thea Haubrich, Leo Pedersen (seated), JoAnn Turner, Marion Trimble, Terry Irvine, Russell Work (seated), and Enid Baker (seated).

Our long standing tradition at our opening reception is to have a food theme which honours the victim's roots, which was American food for Wood. Kurt Hutterli captured the spirit on many levels. He chose Alexander Calder, American, as his muse and wore a red t-shirt all week as red was a favourite theme for Calder. His food contribution hit the ball out of the park!