Up a Down (Sunset, Tuesday, 7 September 2010)

William Van Doren, Up a Down (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

From The Unwritten History of Labor Day (Sunset, Monday, 6 September 2010)

William Van Doren, The Unwritten History of Labor Day. Chapter 19. Sunset (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

Solar Jailbreak (Sunset, Saturday, 4 September 2010)

William Van Doren, Solar Jailbreak (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

In No Mood to Cooperate (Sunset, Friday, 3 September 2010)

William Van Doren, In No Mood to Cooperate (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

The sky was in no mood to be pretty, wear something nice, or even talk. The air stayed strangely hot throughout sunset, in front of a wall of gray that the National Weather Service assures us we will experience as ‘Partly Cloudy’. The only evidence that they might not have their National completely up their Service was, I could still just see the mountains.

The Sky’s Not the Limit (1) (Sunset, Monday, 30 August 2010)

William Van Doren, The Sky’s Not the Limit (1) (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

I added the numeral in parentheses because I have a feeling I’ll be using the title again. It’s related, in a way, to the dark areas people often call borders – and maybe that’s what they are – ultimately they’ll be whatever people say they are. To me they’ve always represented something beyond, or beneath – a substrate of what we call reality – a place from which our experience emerges at every moment. Of course, it’s also a border.

Orange and Its Wake (Sunset, Saturday, 28 August 2010)

William Van Doren, Orange and Its Wake (Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va.) Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.