Buster’s 

Curator: The rough textures and layered paint give this painting, called "Buster’s" by Dan Graziano, an appealingly immediate quality. It reminds me of capturing a moment in the open air. What is your impression of it? Editor: The colours give a familiar feeling. But also one that suggests a feeling of tension, maybe that’s why my eyes keep jumping between the signage and that busy railroad crossing. What is 'Buster's' signifying? Curator: I see it in relation to vernacular architecture, a monument in the everyday. The railroad crossing dominates the pictorial space here, as do those heavy lines in the sign. So, it reads more like an emotional memoryscape of industry than anything else to me. Notice that he isn’t concerned with making it attractive. Editor: I am intrigued. Is it suggesting the place means something more beyond face value? We have an awkward composition for sure. The crossing and sign are competing; how do these connect? Curator: Possibly it’s commenting on the rhythm of contemporary life. "Buster's", bathed in the slightly unreal yellow of the sign. The crossing gate seems like a guardian, mediating between past and present. Perhaps its more of an echo from those fleeting feelings of the moment itself. It feels contemporary but echoes images that seem frozen in time. Editor: Do you find a thread with social history reflected through it? To me it feels in part like capturing a place of intersection, between commerce and public transit, which evokes its role in shaping the lives of those who encounter it. Curator: The artist may want us to connect urban reality and personal feelings to the painted surface itself; but is not forcing these two elements. The image itself and how we interpret it. What will stand the test of time? Will they remember 'Buster's'? Or simply understand it as an element of contemporary history. Editor: As the surrounding architecture of the setting seems like it's becoming generic with each passing decade, this work helps freeze and highlight specific commercial images as signifiers of public spaces within urban environments. Curator: Food for thought, and certainly an image that remains lodged in the memory. Editor: An evocative tableau, even if tinged with a slight melancholy, perhaps urging reflection about our own engagements with such places.