The Lights in the Deep Dark Night Lights and the Peripheral Sentinel What do you see when driving at night? Travel Sketches by metamodernist artist JJFBbennett The night swallows the road long before the mind settles into the rhythm of the drive. Out here, where the bitumen cuts a narrow ribbon through the vast dark of the Australian bush , the headlamps carve out only the immediate seconds ahead—a tunnel of white glare against an ocean of shadow. Yet, vision at night is never truly confined to what sits directly in the beams. In the peripheral sweep, just beyond the hard edge of the headlights where the eucalyptus canopy dissolves into the black sky, the landscape breathes with another kind of presence. Reflected softly on the wet glass of the side window, the world folds inward and outward at once. The rain-streaked pane catches the amber glow of the dashboard and smears it against the deep gloom outside, blurring the boundary between the cabin and the scrub. And there, riding ...
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The Waiting Room and New Possibilities
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I am waiting and maintaining my presence
For centuries, artists have shown what it means to wait. Their works capture quiet, tense moments in which every gesture and expression suggests deep emotions just below the surface.
When I made my digital watercolour, I wanted to capture the feeling of waiting, just as artists before me have done. I used bright oranges and golds to create energy and contrast with the central figure, who appears deep in thought. We have to learn to inhabit the pause rather than just trying to leap over it. I think of it as staying engaged with the 'now,' even when the 'now' feels like a dead end. Instead of just distracting ourselves until the wait is over, we can treat that stillness as a tool—a chance for a bit of growth or a deep breath that actually means something. It’s about being fully there in the silence.
I wanted the central figure to feel grounded but internal, so I used those thick, expressive strokes to build the pose. The hand on the chin and the hidden face—it’s that specific kind of self-reflection you only find when you’re stuck waiting. I threw in the magenta to break the silence. It adds this undercurrent of heat and tension, suggesting that while the person looks calm, the emotions are actually pretty loud. I placed this figure on a dark, solid base for grounding, and surrounded it with a whirling, chaotic background of colour and light. A small, blurry figure behind the main character introduces another dimension: two people waiting separately in the same space. The whole scene balances calm and energy.
I want to show how complex waiting really is. It’s more than letting time pass; it’s an active and sometimes uncomfortable test of our focus. For me, these moments remain more about facing ourselves than about the wait itself. We have to pause, let go of our usual sense of control, and deal with uncertainty. It’s in this in-between space that the real meaning starts to become clear, not in spite of doubt, but because of it.
Waiting challenges our belief that always being busy is better than simply being. It asks us to see the value and richness in stillness.
We need to learn how to wait with purpose and patience, even when it feels endless. When we do this, waiting becomes a space for new possibilities instead of just an obstacle.
We build this skill by observing ourselves. This turns waiting from a burden into a chance to reflect, just like the figure in the painting. Waiting well means finding calm inside the chaos and trusting that things will unfold in their own time. It’s about treasuring rest itself. In this way, waiting can become a spiritual practice that helps us connect more deeply to the present, even if the future is uncertain.
In the end, when we treat waiting as an art form, we find presence and meaning even in the quiet moments. These pauses are just as important to our lives as the actions we take.
This artwork is protected by U.S. and International copyright laws. Distribution and/or modification of the artwork without the written permission of the sponsor is prohibited.
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