A Road, A River and a Railroad Track

Travel Thoughts

I travel a bit and have even more so in the past. Not long ago I was participating in near 24 festivals a year, almost one every other week. Some trips I would leave home, attend two festivals in a row with a glorious camping week in between, and return two weeks later tired and happy.

In Utah under the rain

I love roads, every road, mountain roads, desert roads, dirt trails, highways...fascinating network of ribbons that magically transport my faithful truck from my driveway to a far destination. I rarely listen to music but prefer to let the road permeate me and fill me with all the passing beauty, desolation, open skies, forests, meadows, rivers and railroad tracks.

The River

Indeed many roads in the West crisscross paths with rivers and railroad tracks, again and again. On a recent trip to Utah I entered a canyon and counted the number of times the river and the railroad track cross under the road or the road went above the tracks. I forget and instead remember the bridges, the tunnels, the dams and waterfalls, the boiling river and the steady train...and me in my truck on the road.

Road at sunrise

Struck me that people and life are just like that: a road, a river and a railroad track. Sometimes we travel comfortable and predictably along straight tracks and safe tunnels; sometimes we take an unknown road, knowing that it was built and must begin and end somewhere; yet others we ride the rivers, unpredictable and a bit dangerous...just enough.

So it was destiny that I would make art about it. I may make more than one piece because there is so much to remember. This first piece starts out as a simple depiction of just the theme, a road, a river and a railroad track. Next time you travel, watch for them to come together and disappear apart in the distance, only to come together again, over, under...

First Sketch for A Road, A River and a Railroad Track

Road, River and Railroad

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