Goodbye, Boonville, Indiana

Tomorrow morning I will leave Boonville, Indiana. I've had a wonderful time, and believe that I have produced my best work to date while here. I am off to Louisville in the morning to spend some time looking over more work and to make a few scans.

Each of the towns I have visited and stayed in are unique, and my experiences have varied greatly from town to town. Each one is difficult and wonderful, in it's own way. Boonville, Indiana instantly reminded me of my home-town, and that observation defined this trip for me.

Yesterday I drove the same route that I drove when I arrived here for a brief visit six months ago, while on my way to Boonville, Missouri. During yesterdays drive my senses and memory quickly awoke as I realized that it would be the last time I would take that route to Boonville, Indiana (for some time anyway). I was filled with a mysterious feeling. I was reminded of those feelings when I first arrived so long ago. It was my first visit to a Boonville in four years. I was nervous. And that feeling was the same only seven weeks ago when I arrived to Indiana for my thirty-plus day visit. Those memories made me excited, and even more so sad. I had no idea what to expect when first arriving. What was this place like? What was the mystery surrounding it? As I drove by yesterday, I knew those answers, and I now know those roads and many elements of this town like the back of my hand. It is a wonderful and emotional feeling, to know that I conquered my fear of the unknown.

My best friend once said to me, "I love looking at a drawing I have just finished, it amazes me that the piece of paper was was once blank, and that I have created a world of everything from nothing." I feel the same way about Boonville. A town that was once a mystery to me, a place that was once unknown to me, now means everything to me. And I am so very sad to have to leave.