Studio International

Published 01/05/2008

1. Describing in hindsight her initial encounter with Cunningham, Mennello stated, 'After reading this story, I am sure you will agree with me that it truly was "Fate" that took me to St Augustine so many years ago. If anyone had told me in 1969 when I first met Earl Cunningham that I would one day be the curator of his great collection of paintings, I would have laughed and called them quite mad'. ('The Collector's Story', in H Barbara Weinberg and Michael A Mennello. Earl Cunningham: Dreams Realized. Orlando, FL: The Mennello Museum of American Folk Art, 1998, p. 21).
2. The official exhibition schedule for 'Earl Cunningham's America' is as follows: the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, 10 August-4 November 2007; the American Folk Art Museum, New York City, 4 March-3 August 2008; and the Mennello Museum of American Art, Orlando, FL, 6 March-2 August 2009.
3. For a comprehensive study of Cunningham's life and work, see Earl Cunningham: Painting an American Eden by art historian Robert Hobbs (New York: Harry N Abrams, 1994), a volume now out of print but available in public libraries and second-hand.
4. Virginia M Mecklenburg, 'The Dragon of St. George Street'. In: Wendell Garrett, Virginia Mecklenburg and Carolyn Weekly, Earl Cunningham's America. Smithsonian American Art Museum, p. 33.
5. Earl Cunningham: Dreams Realized, p. 27.
6. For more on Hubbard, see: Wendell Berry, Harlan Hubbard: His Live and Work. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1990.
7. Earl Cunningham's America, p. 42.
8. Earl Cunningham: Dreams Realized, p. 31.
9. Gail Sher, The Intuitive Writer: Listening to Your Own Voice. New York: Penguin Compass, 2002, pp. 69-70.