A new painting, a 16″ by 20″ canvas that I call RFD, for rural free delivery. It alludes to the small mailbox with the the door hanging open, a theme I have used in a prior piece within the past few years. Maybe it’s a comment on the decline of our postal system, something that saddens me because, as I have writtern here before, it meant so much to me as a child as a form of connection to the greater outer world in the days long before the internet and social media, both terms that would have drawn quizzical looks at that time. Maybe that’s what it’s about. Maybe not. I know I’m not sure.
There’s a moody melancholy to this piece that is both a little scary and satisfying at once, something that I am hard-pressed to explain. But I guess that’s what I find appealing in this painting- the fact that it is harder to take in easily with no apparent answers. It is dark and a bit foreboding, filled only with questions. Who might live here? Where are they now? Is mail delivered there now or has this place been abandoned? Is this the end of the road or does it travel on? When is this moment? Is it a darkening or lightening sky? Fall or spring?
There is no Red Tree, no central personification here. Just a tall, windowless and doorless house with a gaping mailbox set amid bony trees and an ominous sky. There is no heroic quality here, no absolutely positive reading or message. Just a mood of mystery.
And sometimes that’s enough…
Redtree Times 