Fresh out of art school, and terrified at the prospect of
failure, I decided to take the easy way
out. Rather than try immediately to become a professional artist, I would bide
my time, live at home, and work at saving money. I already had a job waiting
tables at a rural family diner; I saw this as an opportunity. I could work
nights, paint days, I figured that in no time at all I would be living the
dream. I did not, however, count on all of the excuses I would have not to
paint. I figured that the diner had broken me; I’d lost the will to create. I
didn’t see where I could find inspiration in a place like that, until it struck
me. As a portrait painter interested in bending the traditional view of beauty
there was no place better to find cannon fodder. My diner is a place frequented
by regulars, each with colorful stories to tell. Many of these people have
grown old in the houses their grandparents were born in; some of them have
never left the state. Some are lonely; they are unmarried, widowed, or short
on family. They come to us for a friendly face and we become their routine. I
left this job to embrace the world, but find myself thinking of it often. It
was the last place in the world I had expected to find happiness, but there I
have a very large and unique family. They listen while I recount
my adventures, and carry on with the same enthusiasm about the benefits of a
stick shift, apple season, the price of maple syrup, or a newborn calf. Theirs
is a life of simplicity, which despite my wanderlust I am envious of. They do
not hold themselves to the standards of the urban world, they are happy in the country. Before I escaped I photographed many of our regulars, much of the
staff. I am slowly beginning to paint them, trying to incorporate their
biographies in their portraits. I am interested in the wrinkles and scars that
make up a persons history. George Bellows is a serious influence on this series
of work, his interest in the working class America and the palette he used to
articulate his characters is reflected in my work. I have always been interested in
folklore and traditional story telling. I have a romanticized view of the past
and of the world. Here, in my diner, where nothing ever changes, I feel as
though I have found exactly that.
ALL IMAGES COPYRIGHT JACLYN RUBINO 2012
