Edward Hopper: Capturing Private, Solitary Moments

1 of my favourites is Automat an oil painted by him in 1927.

A young woman with a yellow felt hat sits definitely alone in a barren restaurant drinking a cup of coffee. I look at this and immediately feel her isolation and loneliness as if i...

I have a fascination with the paintings of the American artist, Edward Hopper. Somehowwhether by method, imagination or subject matterhe is in a position to develop the most compelling and evocative scenes, which stir my imagination.

1 of my favourites is Automat an oil painted by him in 1927.

A young lady with a yellow felt hat sits absolutely alone in a barren restaurant drinking a cup of coffee. I look at this and quickly really feel her isolation and loneliness as if it were my own. Is she operating away? What thoughts are in her mind as she stares into the cup?

Right away, Hopper has got us speculating, as he does with all his paintings. Where did she come from? Where is she going? You happen to be caught correct in the middle of a story which you can "read" backwards or forwards in time. I was so taken with this painting that the lady in it became the inspiration for a character in a short story, The Thief, and now a novel which I am writing. Struck by her isolation and self containment, I referred to as her Celia.

I search the painting to see what emotions Hopper creates and how he does it. Behind the solitary lady is a significant window, blackened by an impenetrably gloomy night. The lights or reflections of lights recede into the background giving a murky, tunnel-like impact, leading to nowhere. The radiator, crouching at the left of the painting, appears just as isolated as the girl in the composition, but practically credit card points looks much more communicative than her. The lonely, solitary moment is caught in timepermanently engraved on my thoughts.

Just believe how several stories could develop from this one particular painting! Will someone, a boyfriend or family member enter that door, frequent flyer program hoping to bring her back? If no one air miles particular comes, exactly where will she go as soon as she drinks her coffee? To a dingy hotel space? Onto a train to New York? That would be just like so numerous other Hopper paintings, which so often depict hotel lobbies, motels and railway automobiles. Or maybe she will adjust her mind and go back residence.

Maybe this painting speaks to me of the apprehension of the unknown as we proceed moment to moment by way of life. So typically, we are unsure and tentative, fearing to venture out into the unfamiliar. Then once again, perhaps the girl is incapable of reaching out to other individuals. After all, for me, Celia the character in my story who was inspired by this painting grew into a character that was desperate to get free of charge of her self-imposed isolation from the world. And so, for me art, painting, sculpture, and photography are so frequently an inspiration for writing. Of course, all art [no matter whether it is painting or writing or music] speaks of its own time that is, the time and location in which the artist lived.

Hopper painted much of his function in the twenties, thirties and forties of the last century, when rapid industrialization and urbanization were forcing men and women from their old dwellings and old techniques of living. Consequently, so numerous folks felt lost and displaced. And however, the emotions evoked by his function are universal, whatever the time and location. Great art transcends time and place and touches a nerve in us all, which communicates these universal emotions and suggestions to us. Just like a photograph, Automat is a permanent moment in time current in a world which, at the exact same time, seems so transient.

And that is why such a painting as the Automat inspires me even these days.