This has all the things I love to paint , right here.

Seen (Another Bridge Painting)

Defending the Fort

Interior Winter Afternoon

Crossing Aycock (A Bridge Painting )

This bridge calls me out. I paint it over and over and it is the scene of conflict and contemplation both . It is a metal skeleton of a spiritual bridge and feels older than the two neighborhoods it connects. The narrow track of the train lies like a riverbed deep below . The bridge holds court as trees and vines reach up the banks toward its stark and strong beams. The base of the bridge is a foothold for them , a footpath to me . The floor rumbles underneath like an awakening giant whose force might fling me skyward or shake me off.
But as I said, this bridge calls me out . It posts itself in the back of my paintings and curls around to the front . I consciously use it as a platform for figures in transition or as a ladder between earth and sky. I love the buildings around it , how they crumble and shine , setting off its structure as a garden would a house . It sits in air yet is buried in the deep mystery of the banks on either side , a place between two worlds , a stage of sorts, measured but free.