Darkness

The darkness of the piece immediately draws me to it as I wander the gallery. I stopped in the museum during a brief stay in Cleveland. I always thought paintings were supposed to be colorful and fun. It is a solitary figure on a horse on what appears to be a track, but going counterclockwise. The dark colors, the pale horse, I can feel the sorrow and seemingly impending doom in the scene. I stand staring at it, step closer to read the placard - The Race Track by Albert Pinkham Ryder. I look closer and I see it has another more appropriate title - Death on a Pale Horse.

The grimness of the piece is haunting, it stays with me for many days and even now. It reminds me of my darkest days, how my thoughts were that horse and rider going round and round the track of my mind. It doesn’t scare me, but rather makes me think about life and the journey. A closer look at the piece and it seems the track goes on and on and on, so leads me to thinking of the track as the life that we all follow with death always on our heals. The snake by the track is the temptations we all face along the way. Isn’t that uplifting? Ultimately, it is just a haunting piece that moves me in ways most pieces do not.