Thinking of Alex Colville (1920-2013)

Amherst, Nova Scotia, 2013                           © Avard Woolaver

Like many Canadians my age, my first exposure to the artist Alex Colville was on the cover of Bruce Cockburn’s 1973 album Night Vision. The painting, titled Horse and Train, shows a horse galloping down a railroad track on collision course with an oncoming train. It had a big impact on me; it spoke of reality versus the dream world, order vs. disorder, and machine vs. nature. It was perhaps my first time seeing magic realism.

Colville spent some of his childhood in Amherst, Nova Scotia where this photo was taken. He later attended nearby Mount Allison University where he met South African poet Roy Campbell. Some lines from one of his poems inspired him to create Horse and Train.

I scorn the goose-step of their massed attack
And fight with my guitar slung on my back,
Against a regiment I oppose a brain
And a dark horse against an armoured train. — Roy Campbell

When I stumbled upon this location, I thought it might be the same one as used in the painting–the curve of the track seemed similar, and it’s in the town where he spent his youth. Though the setting was likely in the open expanses of the nearby Tantramar Marsh. My photo features a wind turbine–nature is working together with the machine, rather than against it. And it isn’t “fight the power,” rather “produce the power.”

This photo was taken just nine days before his death in 2013. He will always be remembered as one of Canada’s finest artists. You can see more of his wonderful work here: http://alexcolville.ca/gallery/