Art always interprets. Previous generations knew this almost instinctively, and for decades the nation's railroads invited travelers into wondrous landscapes through commissioned paintings and drawings. Long after the advent of quality photography, railroad advertising continued the distinguished use of art. With the demise of passenger rail services in North America during the 1960's, the railroads lost interest in showing the train as a companion of landscape and community. After all, this was the age of the airplane and the auto and individuality. Passenger trains were seen as impediments to transportation progress. At best they were nostalgic. In either case they became irrelevant.
However, as we enter the new millennium, we are painfully recognizing the limits of the auto and air culture. Responsible stewardship of resources - environmental, economic, and social - dictate that we balance our transportation modes. We claim admiration for the trains of Europe and Asia, but ingrained ideas die hard at home: we do not want to let go of total reliance on that bodily appendage that is the automobile.
Therefore it is time to reinterpret rail to our culture. While photography and digital imagery have their place, only art has the timeless power to induce and persuade. It is my intent that art will help the public look beyond trains as mere nostalgia and see them as a necessary means of restoring balance to our transportation network and even civility to our daily lives.
