There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.
—Buddha
This is a new painting that recently went to Watts Fine Arts in Zionsville, outside of Indianapolis. It’s a large canvas, 20″ tall by 60″ wide, that is called Where the Road Ends.
I often use a pathway or road leading into my work, the idea being that it serves as an invitation for the viewer to enter the scene. Sometimes the path simply cuts through the landscape and runs to a horizon, a symbol of the continuity of the journey. But sometimes the path seemingly ends and I find myself at these times asking myself what that means, both in the context of the painting and in my mind. Is it the reaching of a goal, such as the truth to which Buddha alludes above? Or is it merely a road that comes to an end?
Probably both are correct. In the process of painting I don’t go forward with this final image in mind. The road neither ends nor goes on when I am in the midst of painting. It’s just there. But at a certain point, the composition demands that a decision be made, to either continue with it or to let if disappear behind a knoll. The easier decision is always to continue, to let the path represent the continuum of time. It is natural and something we can all relate to in some way. We understand theconcept of the journey.
But to terminate the road means that there is some sort of finality, an endpoint. Be it wisdom, truth, death or some other sort of epiphany, this terminus presents a great opportunity for symbolism. Enter the single Red Tree. Set against the end of the path and the landscape that opens to lines of distant hills, it becomes an icon for that for which we strive.
Perhaps it is a symbol for our wiser self in the here and now, enlightenment found. Perhaps for some it represents an afterlife, the step beyond our earthly journey. Or it could be any number of other readings. But however it is read, the Red Tree here, sitting away the end of the road, demands engagement from the viewer, demands that they consider its meaning to them.
And I like that.
Redtree Times 