SAN to LA
This piece is an interpretation of the magnificent sight of the ocean visible from the local train I used to take up to LA. I would always make sure I had my ear phones and a good book before I boarded. The first thing I did before I got myself comfortably seated would always be to check to see where the cafeteria was. The journey lasts around two and a half hours and there's no way I could go without a little something to keep me from getting grumpy. Especially when you're seated with not much to do, fewer distractions, it's hard not to get hungry....you know how it is.
I try to sit in a different orientation every time as much as possible. I always felt like doing that will give me a creative pinch to think differently. I was not really into painting at that time during my trips to LA, it was more for the Performing Arts world, but I still needed to make sure I absorbed my surroundings like a sponge. Human interaction and behavior was my greatest interest and that hasn't changed till this very day.
I remember this one girl who had a little sketchbook inventing these amazing illustrations of the interiors of the train. I tried to act like I wasn't watching her sketch, but I just couldn't help myself. She was so into it, so involved with her act of creativity, that it was amusing to watch how concentrated someone can be. To throw yourself into your imagination and express yourself is everything I love doing and it was a pleasure to watch an Artist do it even outside of her studio. I was instantly inspired to bring my sketchbook with me for my next trip and promised myself I would. Did I actually? No. I forgot every time.
The thoughts that run through your head while you go on a train just feel...peculiar. I feel like it's a time given to you to analyze what's really going on in your life and how you want to tamper with it to make things better for you. It's a kind of silence thrown my way, silence from the routine, silence from human connections, silence from the ''next'' thing to do. A silence that I needed more than I ever thought I did. So amazingly beneficial.
From the “Road and Train Trips” collection.