Looking Back to 1985 - "Penobscot Construction"

I have been preparing for a presentation, looking through slides of paintings, and converting them to digital images. As I look back, I have been surprised to see how many ideas resurface, and have enjoyed following how they have morphed and shifted in each new series. It had been quite a while since I looked at the Penobscot Construction paintings, work that documented the development of Rt. 395 and the construction of the Veterans Memorial Bridge over the Penobscot River in 1987. Interest in roadways preceded and followed this work, and eventually resulted in paintings of aerial views of highways. When I look back, the persistence and continuity of ideas is both surprising and comforting. The Falls Road paintings (1979) led to Whiting Hill Construction (1984), which developed into a two year painting project, Penobscot Construction (1985-87). The idea of built structures interacting with natural forms was explored again in Penobscot Intersections, a six triptych public art project painted for the Penobscot Judicial Center in 2008-2011. My landscape interests have always alternated between natural and constructed, rural and urban. Years later it's satisfying to look back at one of their foundations .