standard time 1 by Steven Schroeder

Steven Schroeder

standard time 1, 2018

watercolor on paper

18 x 24 x 0.25 in

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Abstract cityscape, watercolor on 14x20 inch 140 lb cold pressed paper [unframed] | 2018. Mounted in an 18x24 inch mat with 2.25 inch borders on all sides, with archival backing and styrene glazing. When we picture "the city," it seems to me more often than not, we turn to skyscrapers and lights straining to fill the sky (and, I suspect, still tempting the gods to confuse our tongues). But when we live in the city, as often as not, we live with our backs to the skyline and what we see is a low line of gray buildings huddled under a gray sky that reaches down to touch them -- more dark than light here as I look west on a late November night at the end of civil twilight in "standard" time. I've often quoted the late Amarillo poet Buck Ramsey's line about the sky in the Texas Panhandle making you feel "as big as you are, not as big as you think you are." With the bright lights and tall buildings out of sight to my right, I think it's the same here -- though I suspect our propensity (here and there) to feel bigger than we are is a problem even the sky can't solve.