My favorite films aren't stories. They are more an open lens on life. Same goes for what I read: my favorite author in recent years happens to be a café-loving Parisian. And most of the music I play derives ancestrally from Erik Satie, who coined his own music as "background" ambient, or today what might be known as "down-tempo".
Where I live is Caldwell County, about 30 miles south of Austin, Texas. Way back when, my wife Andi and I decided out of practical reasons that it was our time to move, and perhaps re-invent. We observed that most folks looked north from Austin to Cedar Park or west to Dripping Springs (both lovely communities) and in nearly every other direction around Austin except down 183 toward Lockhart. So when we did take that exit and ventured down this way, the quiet and rural prairie town made an impression on me. It simply made me wonder if a place as important as home can be in a place so rural and obscure, so "down-tempo".
No rivers run through Lockhart. The springs that did flow once upon a time, only trickle nowadays. Summers last nearly 6 long months, and the heat can paralyze the local economy. But it's a small enough city that you can move here and run for city council or school board and make a change, or if you want to resist change - maybe historic preservation. I look back and am so grateful for how beautiful our life has been here. The friends we've made and continue to make seem to move to Lockhart as serendipitously as we did, having joined in on what I can only describe as a beautiful experiment.
I am so thrilled to exhibit my painted explorations that celebrate this beautiful Caldwell County, opening Friday, October 2nd at Commerce Gallery.
This landscape, this background, is the blackland prairie. It is planted and grazed upon mostly, and at its commercial center is the county seat of Lockhart that is experiencing renewal and redevelopment. Over the past twenty years I have been drawn emotionally and artistically to the quiet color and warm tonality of this place that I call home. These new paintings in oil step back and take in, they look closely and to either side, the pastoral beauty of Caldwell County, Texas.
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