This painting called Grandfather’s House (on view at the Phoenix Art Museum) was indeed Phil’s grandfather’s house. The house in the painting however is not in Jackson, Michigan but in an arid wasteland of sorts. Old fashioned buildings and architecture looms large in Curtis paintings. Read More

This painting is called The Organ and it was inspired by the pipe organ at the First Baptist Church on Jackson St. in downtown Jackson.

Curtis wrote “I remember going with my mother often while she practiced the organ. When she played Bach I had the feeling the church might be shattered. This organ was a real pipe organ and the largest I’d ever been close to. I later never could understand how she could play that so easily and never was able to drive a car.”Read More