Sometimes We Wait Alone

by Jeffrey Otto

“I have long been interested in how groups of strangers can stand in line, quietly, waiting their turn. People wait in line, sometimes without even being told to. They just know. Most people just mind their own business and wait. Somewhere between here and there, everyone on their own journey. And yet everybody is connected by the commonality they share in the act of waiting together. Individually and collectively. These paintings “Sometimes We Wait Alone 1 & 2” and “Sometimes We Wait Together” (2025), started as a sketchbook drawings on February 22, 2003 at Penn Station in New York City. They show the relative calm of people keeping to themselves while waiting in a crowd. The air is filled with the din of fellow waiters, waiting. Everyone is together. Everyone is in their own zone. Everyone is waiting. These drawings waited decades to find their way to canvas.”