The Open Road beckons

"The Open Road," 8 x 10 watercolor, 140 lb d'Arches rough press paper

"Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,

Healthy, free, the world before me,

The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose."

            --Walt Whitman

The open road beckons these  winter days, especially this year.

Cooped up not just because of the weather but hunkered down trying to avoid the pandemic makes travel all the more enticing, whenever  and if ever we can take to the open road.

We spent time this weekend in conversation about hoped for road trips later this year--Maine, Oregon, New Mexico, Colorado, seashores, mountains--and also looking at maps. The roads beckon.

I couldn't help but think of Walt Whitman's "Song of the Open Road"  as I struggled to find inspiration to paint during the dark last days of January.

"What's the story?""What do you feel?" I didn't want to just paint a "pretty picture, " but something from inside,  where inspiration lives. 

Whitman provided it, though it took several efforts at composition sketches and color experiments to answer.

Thus today's watercolor, "The Open Road," where I'm traveling in my imagination.

When Walt and the open road beckon

"The universe is a road," 8 x 10, 300 lb. d'Arches cold press paper

The journeys of a year near end, and new journeys beckon.
That's when Walt Whitman fits the mood.
"Song of the Open Road" speaks loudly these days, as I ponder not just the journey of a new year, but of actual journeys.
Most familiar are his opening lines:
"Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road...The long brown path before me leading where ever I choose."
But I prefer some lines deeper in the poem, because Walt knew there was more to the open road than just this world, "All parts away for the progress of souls,..."
Today's play-time watercolor inspired by
"To know the universe itself a road, as many roads, as roads for traveling souls."

New year, new journey, every moment

Today--The road ahead, 5.5 b y 8.5 watercolor

Every day is a new year in a sense, and we'd be better off if we thought that way. 
The road behind can't be walked again, and the way ahead is indistinct. There have been many miles, many places, many experiences, many people, but just as you can't step in the same river twice, you can't cover the same miles, visit the same places, have the same experiences, know the same people. 
We are not the same people we were yesterday...everything has changed, even if imperceptibly.
How much it would change us if we thought of every moment as literally a "once-in-a-lifetime" experience--because it is.
The road ahead is indistinct, in spite of all our efforts to want and have 2016's itinerary meticulously planned. Instead, we take the first step.

"Song of the Open Road"

Walt Whitman

"Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,

Healthy, free, the world before me,

The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.

"Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,

Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,

Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,

Strong and content I travel the open road...."