With Exploring Time, Tony Foster has helped us once again to “Stop and Think,” framing the concept of time for us in four generous “time zones” — Geological Time (fun for me as a geologist), Biological Time, Human Time and Fleeting Moments. The arrival of this Journey is timely — most would argue we are at a point in human history where threats to landscapes, species, and human ambitions have many of us overwhelmed and reflecting on past, present, and future. Scientists (many of Tony’s friends including myself) and artists (Tony) are not often perceived in similar professions, and yet both require remarkably similar skills — keen observation, attention to detail, curiosity, enormous patience, and a level of suspended belief. This Foster Journey, like the eighteen that have come before, has required Tony to hone each of those skills. But unlike some of his past Journeys which focused on a defined geographic area such as the Green River or John Muir Trail, this project is akin to his 16th Journey, Exploring Beauty: Watercolour Diaries from the Wild, born from a philosophic and scientific query. Tony’s inspiration came when he learned that a fossil from the ocean’s floor was found at the pinnacle of one of Earth’s grandest mountains, propelling him to put together this Journey exploring the idea of Time. At first, it wasn’t an easy sell. As Tony began to share this idea with me, others at The Foster Museum, and his friends and advisors, he was greeted with skepticism, curiosity and some concern — how could he possibly examine a subject as huge and amorphous as Time? How will he decide what to include and what to exclude? Most importantly, how will his audience understand what he is trying to communicate? How can a painter express through landscape the profundity of time’s impact and measure? The answer, it turns out, was the same that propels most scientists to take on what appear initially to be absurd inquiries: keen observation, attention to detail, curiosity, patience, and belief — in this case, Tony’s belief that the wonder and awe that he felt in seeing time’s mark on the earth could be felt by his audience. No small leap of faith for Tony (or us!), but he convinced us it was a worthy and important subject. So, we clasped hands and took the leap with him. It is not a coincidence that this Exploring Time Journey comes at this moment. Tony is on the cusp of his eighth decade, a time when summary and review are natural reflexes. Tony has never been shy about expressing his delight in wild places, and today he has become more strident in his hope that we recognize our collective foolishness in destroying the very thing that sustains us. Perhaps this is the most important takeaway from this Journey — that in recognizing the truly amazing systems that shape our planet, its flora and fauna, and our human species, we might understand we are only a small part of a complex system and yet we are having an outsized impact. In keeping with The Foster Museum’s mission to unite, understand, and share Tony Foster’s watercolor wilderness Journeys, inspiring connection to art, nature, and the protection of place, we are pleased to accept this Journey into our permanent collection and support the exhibition’s multi-year international tour that will take Exploring Time: A Painter’s Perspective to audiences across the United States and the United Kingdom. Tony Foster and Jane Woodward on the San Juan River, where Foster is painting en plein air for his Sacred Places: Watercolour Diaries from the American Southwest Journey, May 2011. 9
