Hello Filth!

Today marked the first day I went outside and was cold. This will last until May. Anyway, the cold reminded me that it is indeed fall, and the arrival of cool weather always brings my family a little chuckle as we welcome the season of "filth." Allow me to explain.

In elementary school, probably around first or second grade, each of us made a little "hot plate" to take home to our parents. I clearly don't recall details since I can barely remember dressing myself this morning, but apparently, Little Petey's assignment was to draw "the seasons." Pete was a smart kid, so he split the hot plate into four sections and drew summer as a nice field with a pretty red house and spring with a puffy cloud and an Easter Egg. Winter was a bare tree with what I assume were supposed to be snowflakes but actually looked more like little blue bicuspids. In each corresponding square, he wrote "Winter," "Spring," and "Summer." Quite impressive spelling for such a little guy with a big head (it's true, he was way out of proportion then). Then it went slightly awry. When you look at the fall picture, there is a nice tree with brightly colored leaves, but underneath it our future double Ivy Leaguer wrote "Fillth."

I mean, heck yeah! Go Petey! Things are dying everywhere and it does seem kinda brown and musty, so why not just say it like it is? I like to think that creatively renaming fall was an early manifestation of his artistic prowess. Perhaps he will let us sneak his very first "piece" into one of his shows.

The earliest work of Peter Francis, entitled "Filth" (circa 1991) housed in a private collection.