Jolly About The Trolley!

(Miami Valley Regional Transit Authority Trolley Circa 1996)


As a kid, I loved riding the yellow bus.
No.
Not the school bus.
The Dayton RTA trolley.
Is it was always an adventure, especially around the holidays when Santa sat in the back seat handing out candy canes to eager children.
Those days are long past.
As well as the original trolley design.


People frown heavily on public transportation- saying that it’s the poor man’s ride and that things are better efficient with a car!
While there are pros and cons of every way of transport, I will always enjoy a good bus ride.
With new environmentally friendly buses (they have trolley hybrids now!) and a cost effective way of saving money, buses, trains, and subways are certainly wonderful way to travel.
Sometimes they can be late.
At times very early.
But I truly love buses and appreciate the people driving them.
I especially enjoy long journeys and going the distance on buses I’ve never boarded.
That of which I can do more of since receiving a surprise monthly bus pass for Christmas.
On particular bus rides, I always find myself leaning against the window either daydreaming, reading books, writing in my journal, or drawing in the sketchbook.
My favorite kinds of buses are trolleys.
That much is obvious! Not a single diesel will be pictured! Haha!
They are nostalgic, perfectly constructed, and now have comfortable seating.
There’s something about standing at the bus stop and watching as it approaches. The perpendicular wires attach on a cord giving it the power it needs to “survive” and that beautiful yellow shade gets my eyes pumping.
Is it any wonder that my novel series are called The Yellow Trolley Chronicles- stories about a young, troubled artist and her friendship with a kind-hearted bus driver?
Loosely based on actual events, I do believe it was destiny to meet a person that inspired a passionate, poetic side to emerge. Aspects of the novel are quite lovely, especially the two characters’ interactions, but other parts are ugly, dark, and brutal realities that happen in life.
In between writing this, creating duck fashion illustrations and African centric portraiture, I’m starting a new painting series on nine by twelve inch canvases- small scale.
Purposefully abstract, these stylized exaggerations are a reflection of a woman who has loved the evolution of buses since forever. I plan on adding more than local color and value in these works. Oranges, pinks, blues, and reds will be squeezed next to the greens, whites, yellows, and purples palette.


This was just a dorky colored pencil sketch.
The shapes are not exactly square, but the exterior design of a trolley is a series of complex angles and edges.


Two rough acrylic paintings in the beginning stages of epic bus greatness- the green trolley hybrid and the yellow trolley.


Smooth, sleek elegance.
Will be probably finishing this one first.
It's my favorite.


Ah, the coveted, yellow trolley.
I adore you.
If it were possible, I would love to get married on one!