Ventura– At Principle Gallery
And there is the headlight, shining far down the track, glinting off the steel rails that, like all parallel lines, will meet in infinity, which is after all where this train is going.
–Bruce Catton, Waiting for the Morning Train
The beginning of the new year. It’s the best and the worst, at least for me.
At its best, it is a time filled with potential in many ways. Potential growth as a human and an artist, for example. Growth that allows me to get a bit closer to that intangible destination that lingers in my imagination. The potential for the excitement that comes in the breakthrough of new creation.
At its worst, there’s also the potential for failure and disappointment that comes in seeing how limited you are as a human and an artist. The potential for feeling a sense of being static or blocked as an artist.
It’s something I struggle with each year at this time, feeling both giddy excitement and stomach-turning anxiety for what might be ahead in the new year, knowing that I am at a point where action is required. A time for setting aside excuses and getting the creative train back on track.
The passage at the top from the late historian/author Bruce Catton really stood out for me this morning. Much of my work deals with lines and forms receding into infinity, like the parallel lines of train tracks into the distant horizon. Whether one ever reaches that point of infinity is the question and this time of year makes the question seem even more stark.
So, this new year begins at the edge of the tracks, excited and apprehensive at the same time, with the hope that I can climb aboard and ride them into that distant horizon, to something beyond the here and now.
Infinity?
I don’t know. Only time will tell.
Here’s yet another favorite tune from the great bluesman Big Bill Broonzy. This is This Train (Is Bound For Glory). Hope he’s right…
Redtree Times 