Edward Hopper: Woman in Train Compartment

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Tina Pickard I just love the landscape whisking by the window, one frame at a time.She seems to be alone on the train. Is she trying to elude observation?

Stan Burfield It's definitely Edward Hopper. The feeling of uninhabited space around a single person who may be lonely, may not be.

Stan Burfield And the people in his paintings are always into their little world, oblivious to the emptiness.

Tina Pickard It almost seems they want it that way with her hat half drawn over the corner of her face.

Stan Burfield Right. I'm not sure if it's an exaggeration of all of our lives, or if it's accurate, but we just keep trying to ignore it. We definitely distract ourselves a lot. From our selves, our loneliness, or the difficulty of being with others, I don't know.

Tina Pickard What do you think she is reading?

Stan Burfield The Post, of Life, or Ladies Home Journal, or a fashion magazine. What wouuld you say?

Tina Pickard I think she is reading about how to grow roses, as she is probably a avid gardener ,another area of interest as she can wear a hat, a disguise to not be noticed.

Stan Burfield Ha ha. Very perceptive!

Stan Burfield You should be a detective!

Tina Pickard I also think when she pricks her finger with the roses, she is fascinated by her blood and never wipes it of but rubs it into her skin. ha ha

Stan Burfield My goodness.

Tina Pickard Sweet dreams

Stan Burfield Tina, you're as interesting as the woman in the painting!

Tina Pickard Maybe its me.

Stan Burfield She does look like you. Did you ever wear those hats?

Tina Pickard No my mother did though

Tina Pickard I actually enjoy travelling by train, do you?

Stan Burfield I love it. Across Canada in three great days and nights. Spent a lot of time in the bar car with all the other long-distance travellers.

Tina Pickard I see, sounds great, I bet you met a lot of interesting people. I find it soothing.I like it better than flying.

Stan Burfield I just looked at his famous Night Hawks (in the corner cafe) and the woman isn't wearing that hat. Thought she did.

Tina Pickard ha haha

Stan Burfield It was similar, but more modern, to the Orient Express.

Tina Pickard Oh yes.

Stan Burfield Across Canada, they had a bar car and a dining car. Great. Don't know if they still do. I think so though, for the long trips.

Tina Pickard I dont want to cut you short but I was up at the lake today and I have to go to sleep, the sun was hot.I think that going on the train across Canada is the only way to go, good for you. I would like to do that, maybe one day I will wear that hat.

Stan Burfield Ha ha. You would look good in it. Good night.

Tina Pickard Good night Stan have a good day tomorrow, I enjoy always talking to you.

Unlike · Reply · 1 · 19 June at 01:18

Stan Burfield I think I get what you like about this painting. Coming from such a huge family, you've been crowded all you life. The woman in the painting is finally alone, relaxed, leaving on her own. (?)

Like · Reply · 1 · 16 hrs · Edited

Tina Pickard Yes !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Stan your a genius.

Stan Burfield I also understand the blood on the finger too. It's not as wild a thing as one might think at first glance.

Stan Burfield It's part of the same problem for you. You went from a huge family, in which you undoubtedly spent enormous amounts of mental energy, and learning, dealing with all the tumult and relationships (and to a serious degree, being female) around you, straight into a work life inside an even bigger mass of relationships, this time, instituted so you weren't allowed to avoid them (the hospital) even if you wanted to. Not only would you have desperately wanted to have some time to yourself, but, even more, some time to see who you were inside, a place you had no time to look or venture during your whole life, and a place (an enormous part of you, being it's your subconscious) which you probably feel, sadly, you have lost entirely. So you want, maybe more than anything (or at least than some things), to get in touch with that depth, to become a deeper person, one who feels from a more profound place. But instead, you have no idea what goes on under the surface, if anything. You yearn to know. To see it. Well, when the surface is cut, and blood oozes out of there, it is a hint. It tells you there is something in there. It tantalises you. So you don't want to wash it off and get rid of it. You want to save that link, treasure it. By wiping it into your finger's skin, you not only save it, but you put that little bit of inside on the outside where you live, and where you can see it and better relate to it as part of your normal exterior life. And there the link is saved for you.

Stan Burfield Here's another, possibly equally interesting, possibly more interesting, thing. When you wrote about the pricked finger and smearing the blood, you may have thought of that idea some time before, or you may have thought of it right then, after having mentioned gardening, but in any case, that was your subconscious speaking. That is a dream image. A waking dream. The dream mind speaks in terms of visual symbols. You no doubt thought it was your own creative idea. And it was, since your subconscious is yourself. Most times when that happens it's difficult to tell who is speaking. Only afterwards, when you analyze it and see how perfect it was, and realize that you would not likely have been able to come up with such profound perfection yourself, that you can see it was your dream mind sitting there with you, operating together with your conscious mind. This is exactly how the best lines in the best poems in the world are written.

Tina Pickard Only the Cicada knows as I said when we first started to talk./ I never share anything I am surprised I have shared what I have and you are not intrusive it does not feel that way you seem very understanding , maybe I will send you one of my poems I wrote as a child . They wereburied under ground for 28 years and I WAS VERY FORTUNATE TO BE ABLE TO RETRIEVE THEM WHEN i WAS OLDER. iT WOULD BE INTERESTING FOR YOU AND YOU MAY THEN UNDERSTAND ME BETTER.

Stan Burfield ha ha. Me too. Well, my motivation is a non-intrusive one in that I simply love to understand things.