Eckleburg 2016 – Sunset, Saturday, 12 November 2016

William Van Doren, ECKLEBURG 2016. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on canvas, 8 x 10.

Reference to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and the eyes of Dr. TJ Eckleburg.

Sunset, Saturday, 18 July 2009

Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on paper, 16 x 20.

The sun going down on a mostly clear summer day, a dark green atmosphere starting to form underneath the great oaks – darker for the brightness of the sunset – puts me in mind of the evening trees and green lawns of West Egg, in the spaces between Nick Carraway’s cottage and Gatsby’s mansion. Pretty funny, considering I’m standing in a yard that hasn’t been mowed in a few weeks, looking past a garden waist-high with weeds, and the nearest party is likely to consist of a few drunken yahoos screaming and tossing bottles out by the county road. But thanks, Scott Fitzgerald, for creating this part of the world for me, this atmosphere under the trees.