On The Dead Line

Today I got a call from Diane Sibbison, the wonderful exhibits manager at Delaplaine, and she has scheduled my solo show for October, 2011. There it is; a deadline; I love deadlines, as they provide necessary focus. Oddly enough, that word DEADLINE originated as a real line, drawn in the dirt or marked by a fence or rail, restricting prisoners in Civil War camps. They were warned, "If you cross this line, you're dead." To make dead sure this important boundary was not overlooked, guards and prisoners were soon calling it by its own bluntly descriptive name, the dead line.

Shortly after that call from Diane, I could feel the reality of the project and started to flesh out my characters and the narrative of a story that never happened, and yet, happens every day.

I believe it was Albert Einstein’s pal, Johnny Wheeler that said, “Time is nature’s way of keeping everything from happening at once, and space is what keeps everything from happening to me.” My story will be set in the 1860’s, yet it is happening to me right now, 150 years later. The feelings felt do not change; all is reduced to love or fear.