Posted by Rich
Rich is the one with the baseball hat on. John is the photographer, so of course his pic is the better one. John and I will both be posting images and messages about progress towards our exhibit at the Artists' Gallery in September, 2010.

Just this past week I had to deliver work up to the Society of Illustrators in Manhattan, NYC, and found myself yet again driving as quickly as possible through New Jersey. Seems like most of the time I travel through New Jersey I drive or ride the train as quickly as possible through it, whether going to the shore or to New York City. Other times I cling to the edges of the state, driving along the Delaware River or the Atlantic Ocean...I have always enjoyed John Steinbeck's book Travels With Charley, and even Steinbeck seemed to drive through New Jersey as quickly as possible. My paperback copy is 277 pages long, and Steinbeck devotes one short paragraph to his travel through the Garden State: "New Jersey was another turnpike. My body was in a nerveless, tireless vacuum. The increasing river of traffic for New York carried me along, and suddenly there was the welcoming maw of Holland Tunnel and the other end home." Granted, he was finishing up a drive around the country that took a few months and culminated with first hand experiences with the civil rights movement early 1960's, so who can blame him for not stopping and writing about the bridge over the Raritan River in Edison, NJ, with home at just the other end of the tunnel. Or, perhaps he did stop, and his editor axed that passage to devote more attention to his conversations about the "Cheerleaders" trying to keep New Orleans public schools from being integrated. However, I cannot claim that type of distraction, so for this particular exhibition John and I are undertaking we plan on driving the roads that are marked in blue on a road map of New Jersey that John has; for myself, diners have always been a favorite subject of mine, and New Jersey seems to have a fair number of interesting ones, so I am planning on making some of these trips to various diners that are listed on www.njdiners.com.

Not exactly a Steinbeckian journey, but I think I can get some pretty good reference for paintings. I suppose I could take my dog Maggie along, too.