Inside the Texaco Station

Inside the Texaco Station (22 x 28″ framed watercolor)

The young man was up late again, bedding down in the store room of the old filling station.  He had closed the place at dark, but was too engrossed in his college studies to pack up the books and head for his garage apartment in the next county.  So, with the owner’s permission, he would spend another night in this shack, amidst the smells of gasoline, oil, pit grease and the grime that had built up over two generations.  The Texaco station was anchored on historic Route 66 in an obscure town east of Amarillo, Texas.  Interstate commerce had all but obliterated the sleepy town, and as soon as this fellow graduated from the community college, he would depart as well.  The local townspeople and patrons had no knowledge or regard for the things that stirred the soul of this young man.  His volumes of Thoreau, Frost, Whitman and Twain had opened to him worlds beyond this community.  And his few camping possessions stored in this room (Griswold frying pan, stove top percolator, kerosene lantern, Maxwell House tin) were the tether that kept him bound to the wild.  He would be packing up his gear in a week and leaving without notice.  It was time to emerge from this cocoon and embrace the world that was calling out to him.

I hope to display this companion still life piece beside the fishing still life in the weekend art festival approaching–Art on the Greene in Arlington, Texas.  http://www.artonthegreene.com/  Again, I have fabricated a short story to put on the back of the 5 x 7″ greeting cards bearing the image.  I sell these cards for $5 each, five for $20.  Sometimes, the greeting cards sell better out of my booth than the limited edition prints and orginal watercolors.  

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