Approaching a Big City by Train

For those of us who live in New York City and choose not to own cars, summer often finds us on a litany of trains—the impulse to escape the blasting furnace of the city leading us to cooling points north or east (for the most part). I happen to enjoy riding the rails and I’ve been taking advantage of the access to the country that trains afford me this summer, reveling in the lush greenness that seems so much more sumptuous after a steady diet of gray concrete.

I came across this quote by the famed painter Edward Hopper just before one of my trips out of town, and I thought it would be a great jumping off point for today’s Salon exploration: “…I’ve always been interested in approaching a big city in a train, and I can’t exactly describe the sensations, but they’re entirely human and perhaps have nothing to do with aesthetics.” Hopper is known for his expressive use of light in his painting—I challenge anyone to look at “House by the Railroad” and not feel pangs of loneliness! It is one of the unique perceptive attributes that make his paintings memorable.

Being human, each of us has our own thumbprint, both physically and figuratively. Have you noticed anything in particular about your own “entirely human” sensibilities that might stand out as “yours”? Do you feel that these traits color your relationships and shine through in your use of social media?

*Considering Edward Hopper is widely acknoledged as the most important realist painter of twentieth-century America, it’s surprising to note he was born in 1882, in New York, into a middle class family. From 1900 to 1906 he studied at the New York School of Art, and while in school shifted from illustration to works of fine art. After finishing school, he worked as an illustrator and made three international trips that had a great influence on the future of his work, such as the type of art he would engage in during the course of his career. These three trips to Europe between 1906 and 1910, in retrospect, would cement a love of France, and more particularly, Paris. This city—its architecture, light, and art tradition—decisively impacted his painting.

*A note to adroyt readers, this post was crafted in 2011 and though social media and blogging continue to influence marketing, quite a lot has changed philosophically during the intervening five and a half years. We see these dated posts merely as proof of our evolution as a new media strategy firm, working in an industry that changes pretty much minute-by-minute. We leave these posts up because we believe someday they may even be historical documents showing the evolution of the digital marketing model.

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