Lance deHaven-Smith

Capital Scenes

" Night Entry"

 

 

"Written in Stone, second place, 2006 Southeast Regional Fine Arts Exhibition

 

 

"Almost Home"

 

 

 

"Capital Night"

 

 

The Old Waterworks on Halloween"

 

 

"Misty Tallahassee Morning"

 

 

 

"Top Hats"

 

 

 

 

 

"The Old Jail"

 

 

 

 

 

Capital Summer 1

 

 

 

 

"Homecoming"

 

 

 

Capitol Lights

 

 

 

Capitol Lights 2

 

 

 

Church and State

 

 

 

 

Misty Tally Small

 

 

 

Downtown

 

 

Downtown Traffic

 

 

 

The Old Jail

 

 

 

 

 

Old City Hall, Small

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Waterworks 2

 

 

 

 

"Almost Home 2009"

 

 

 

Old Waterworks at Christmas

 

 

 

"Tallahassee in Winter"

 

About These Paintings

Lance's paintings of Tallahassee street scenes are intended to show how the city's architecture, arrangement of buildings, and building heights reflect the competition among various interests for influence and "position."  By law, the highest building in the city is the Capitol, which stands for the power of the state.  The next tallest buildings house private business interests.  These buildings are surrounded by churches, courthouses, and offices of civic groups, suggesting the importance of civic culture and the rule of law in the operation of commerce.  In the distance, atop the city's second-highest hill, stands the walled campus of Florida State University, the fortress-like repository of inquiry and truth, which must be protected from political intereference and also sequestered from conventional beliefs that are important to social order but unable to withstand objective scrutiny.