This painting is a romanticized memory of the train depot where I grew up. When I was a small boy, I would ride my bicycle to the train depot whenever I could get away. It was a small town so the depot was not an elaborate building. I would stand at a distance staring at it, longing to get away, to just leave, to escape. I never had a destination in mind. The train, when one was at the depot, was this giant metal monster but I knew it had to be safe because I would see people in and around it. I feared the train but at the same time I felt it was my only way out. For years, the sound of a train's horn haunted me and it would make me feel unsettled, anxious, and sad. Eventually, I was able to understand the feelings a train would evoke from my memory bank. Today the sound of a train on rails, the sight of a train, the sound of a train blowing its horn is just a train to me. However I still have the feeling, the need, to run away, to just get away, to escape but at least I now know the why of it. |