Rain in Metropolis

1993, 28" x 22"
Omoide Collection

I like rain.  When I moved to California from Washington, D.C. and landed in a seven-year drought, I was made doubly aware of the dryness in the surroundings.  I missed rain.  I missed the sound of rain and the stillness of rainy days.  In “Rain in Metropolis,” I wanted to paint the late spring rain and the nostalgia expressed by Ishikawa Takuboku in the following poem:

“Memory of the rain

in the fields of my home town,

of pale purple potato flowers

soaked in the rain…

rain… in metropolis.”