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Up until about ten years ago I had always worked with my hands. I always was interested in trains, I can never remember feeling put out sitting at a crossing waiting for the road to clear. But the reason I told myself I was getting into model railroading was to fix things. It really is a good feeling to see the tangible result of your labors. Paperwork is not as rewarding taking something broken and making it work. But now I am finding that the artistic part of the hobby is both the hardest and the most fun. My first trip into an art museum was when I was 19, I took a girl [;)] from Art History class to the Cincinnati Art Museum. I spent the day obsessing over a statute they had near the entrance way that was labeled "Heifer". Now I grew up on a farm and I knew what a great job the ancient artiest did carving the animal out of a block of stone. Ribs, hair, ears, nose, hooves the detail was amazing. My problem was that it was obviously and old herd cow not a heifer. It was like they labeled a coaling station and water tower as a diesel maintenance area. I felt so bad for the craftsman who had so accurately carved the animal thousands of years ago. He knew his subject and had all the skills needed to model it correctly. Even if the people putting it on display would not know the difference between a bull and a heifer they recognized his skill. Isn't that what we strive for? To accurately represent a scene so that if an old railroad man came in he would instantly know it and to do it so skilfully that any fool off the street will be impressed? Over the weekend I was working on my layout, on a rural siding and I went to the Walthers site and searched for bumpers. The ones I was familiar with just did not seem right for the scene. They did not "feel" like rural southern Ohio. Even though the old Atlas bumper or the wheel stops at the local grain elevator would fit my era they would not give it the flavor I wanted. I think all of us qualify as artists. Any time we try our best to realistically model a time and place with display pieces, dioramas or layouts we are making art. Some of us have training. Some of us are "Outsiders" with no formal training but a lot of ingenuity and desire. But I think we are all artists. Some of the work I have seen here and at the train show after the NMRA convention could easily go in a museam. A lot of it could. I don't know if it ever will but I think an enlightened curator could see qualities in much of your work that would rate a showing in their institution.
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