Home is a Shifty Notion

In response to Dual(ing).

Home is a Shifty Notion, watercolor on watercolor paper, approx. 3.5" x 5.25"

Trains

In response to Cell Study; Binding Study (I think I responded to both, really)

The Western United States was built on the railroad, but now nobody there takes the train.

There were 14.7 million Amtrak rides in the West last year, and 24.0 million in the Northeast. Those are figures don’t include regional rail, and that’s a region that has less people.

When I was in college in the middle part of this decade, I took the train up and down the Pacific Northwest corridor quite a bit, and I never saw a train car even half full. There’s an odd loneliness to taking the train, where you can walk through the station and into the car and sit down and look out the window without ever having to talk to someone, so long as you purchased your ticket beforehand. As opposed to, say, an airport, where you have to get checked by twelve people just to get in the goddamn thing that’s going to take you somewhere. Even on a bus, you have to get your ticket checked and wade through dozens of people to get to your seat (And maybe it’s just me, but every Greyhound I’ve been on is still packed to the gills).

On a train, you just sit.

Cell Study; Binding Study

In response to How Not To Be A Smoker
(You can choose one, or both; I did them one right after the other.)


Cell Study, watercolor on bristol paper, approx. 3.25" x 3"




Binding Study, watercolor on bristol paper, approx 5" x 4.75"

Dual(ing)

This is in response to Boulder + Bloodfruit

When I was ten years old, in 1998, my mom and stepdad and I moved from Morden, Manitoba, Canada, to Eugene, Oregon, USA. I’ve gone back to Canada several times a year since, as my entire family’s still there, excepting my stepsiblings who joined us in Oregon years later.

There’ve been certain times since 1998, while in either country, that I've felt homeless, lost, a half-citizen of two countries, neither of which quite fit. This is, of course, unadulterated bullshit.

A closer reality is the opposite: I actually have two homes, and two countries I can fit into my identity and claim privilege to, and most of the time, “homeless” is not as adequate as a description of my nationalistic feelings as is, “this is fucking sweet”.

As long as I’m a nomad, I’m fine. If America ever elects Bush III and reinstates the draft, I can jaunt back up to Canada. If Stephen Harper ever guts the social health system, I can merrily tear up my Social Insurance Number card and set up shop in Massachusetts. And if global warming nukes the planet and turns Oregon into Waterworld, I can make a new home in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, where real estate prices, by the way, are marvelously low. And I can vote in both countries. It’s a good life.

"Boulder + Bloodfruit"

Boulder + Bloodfruit, pastel pencil on bristol, approx. 4.5" x 6.5 "