Marlboro State Hospital, NJ..looking desolate, as it is empty and has been for a number of years. It is also huge..which the picture here does not show. If you mention this place,  people say.."oh! I know that place..my brother went there, Aunt, Uncle, Mom, Dad or cousin..in my case it was my Mom..before I was born, they told me. Today, the place is abandoned and all the people having problems which formerly would have sent them to Marlboro, are now home on drugs and somewhere else. A few months ago..winter months, a grey day, I was driving down country roads in Marlboro, NJ and out of the corner of my eye I felt a tug..looked as I was driving by and barely saw the vast brick building way back across the fields.

Deja vu! I know this building..but didn't. Had only seen it in my minds eye. Did a double take at the next traffic light, talking myself into taking the time to slow down and listen to the gentle pull of the past I never knew and only heard about.  I pulled into the driveway and slowly proceeded up the long and curving road.

I tried to imagine my mother here, outside on the benches, in spring, with the fields and flowers..or behind the dark glass. I decided to make a circuit around the buildings just to say hello to the space and absorb a painful and powerful place of medical history.  Around back, completely hidden was another building with a sign which said "NEW HOPE". After experiencing the profound emptiness of building after building after building..this New Hope got me to come to a halt in front of the door.

Some part of me was thinking some better communication might be happening right then between myself and my mother then ever happened when my mother was alive..so I reached into the back of the van and gathered up odds and ends of art projects, hubcaps, posters and what have you..up the steps and into the building. Flashed art and talked fast. What you will see on these pages to come is what is becoming of that glimpse on a grey day..

J. Wray   Come on around back!