Bryant Road Trips
A friend asked me the other day if I enjoyed traveling just because I enjoy traveling or if it actually plays a part in my art (I love a good rhyme) as well. I do love traveling, but it does play a part in my process and art making for sure. We will circle back. Hear me out.
Love a good road trip? Me, too! I am exceedingly thankful for a husband and boys who love them as well. Living in East Texas definitely offers tons of fun options for a quick weekend getaway when we begin to feel like we have been cooped up for weeks on end. This past weekend, my boys - all three of them - and I headed out for Huntsville, Texas. Kevin nor I had ever been, and all we were interested in were the Sam Houston attractions. I have a bit of an obsession with good ole Sam - kind of strange, maybe, because I am not a native Texan, but neither was he - so I was hopeful this trip would wrap up my need to visit most of his adventure sites. Maybe it did. Maybe it didn’t. I’m not sure yet, but I will let you know.
On this trip, we drove straight to the Sam Houston Memorial Museum and walked around the Steamboat House, the Woodland Home, and several other buildings that were brought to this place for Sam Houston enthusiasts to enjoy. The Sam Houston experts have done a fabulous job detailing every exhibit with lots of historical information. It was a great environment, my kids were engaged and learning, and my husband and I learned a lot as well. Win. Win. We, of course, had to visit Sam’s final resting place and the sixty-seven foot tall statue of him on the side of the interstate, too. I was amazed at how much my kids took in and how many questions they asked about him and his life. Turns out that whole travel and education thing really works out.
As far as my art goes (I told you we’d circle back), Sam’s journey is one of soooooooo many experiences. I love that he wasn’t afraid to try new things, to stand up for the things he believed in, and at the end, his final words were what and who he loved most - “Texas. Texas. Margaret.” This makes me cry every time I think about it. I love that in spite of losing people, losing hope, losing love, losing himself at various points in his life, he not only finished strong at the end, he persevered through the worst of times and got to celebrate the best of them. It is this, the best kind of character, that inspires all of my artwork. The people whose journeys I paint are not always famous. Many of them will never have their names mentioned in a history book, but they are examples of courage, of integrity, of spirit. They are the people who stand by others when no one else will. Or throw an arm around a shoulder so no one sees the tears of a broken soul. Or encourages the person whose smile is starting to fade. Or keeps climbing higher while those ever so near try to pull them down.