Clifton and the Bunny Man legend

This past Sunday an atypical December warm spell allowed me to venture outdoors for some brief sketching. I decided to draw the railroad crossing at the small town of Clifton, Virginia. It rained on me some that day and my sketch was done rather hurriedly, jotting down only what I felt was important to suggest the scene I was viewing. Clifton is a typical time warp town, the type found everywhere across America. It is comprised of the usual 19th century homes and stores that seem to undergo conversion to upscale restaurants and antique shops. During the Civil War, the location was known as Devereux Station. Later in 1868 the station was renamed Clifton and the ensuing community grew up around it. Perhaps the most interesting anecdotal fact about the area is that it is home to the local “Bunny Man” legend. According to that legend, spread mostly by children, the Bunny Man was a nightmarish, ax carrying, murderer of small children who committed his crimes between Clifton and the road overpass a short distance east of town. He acquired his name for the full length bunny suit he wore while committing his crimes. Never caught, the Bunny Man continues to live on in the imagination of many residents. The truth of this would be assailant is perhaps more bazaar then his legend. In the early 1980’s this portion of Fairfax Co., Virginia was undergoing intense residential development. Previously, the region had mostly been comprised of small homes and a few farms plus large wooded areas but the new rapid growth that was occurring was shrinking what was left of the area at an alarming rate. It is believed that the famed Bunny Man was actually a disgruntled local resident bent on retribution for the disappearance of a way of life the area had known for over a hundred years. Of the two officially reported sightings of the Bunny Man, the first described a man dressed in a bunny suit popping out of some nearby woods to attack lovers parked on a desolate road in the area. Claiming that the lovers were trespassing, the Bunny Man hurled an hatchet through the front windshield of the couple’s car. No one was hurt but the hatchet was kept by the police. In the second incident, a security officer observed a man dressed in a bunny suit hacking away with a hatchet at a column post to an unfinished new home. When the Bunny Man saw the security officer he claimed the officer was trespassing and ordered him to leave before he busted his head. The officer returned to his car to retrieve his pistol and the Bunny Man disappeared into the woods. Thus, the lore surrounding these events grew into the ax murdering legend commonly refer to as the Bunny Man.

Brownsville

This painting I executed back around the first of November. It was my first revival of plein air painting in over a year. The title tells of the locale but the story about this place I learned from a historic marker posted at the site of the original farm house . Brownsville was the name given to a portion of the William Lewis plantation in Prince William Co., Virginia. The land is now part of Manassas National Battlefield and is thankfully preserved as a park forever. This antebellum plantation was sadly the home to over 400 slaves for years leading up to the Civil War; the name Brownsville draws distinction to the inhabitant's skin color not to anyone named Brown. The marker also makes mention of how enchanting the beautiful sunsets and peaceful setting was for a new family of owners at the turn of the 19th century. I am struck by the sad irony of such a statement considering how just 40 years earlier, those generations who had spent their entire lives in slavery must have observed the same sunsets and reflected upon them. It is impossible to guess the feelings of the inhabitants of Brownsville; being enchanted by nature must require a level of well being and security that anyone desperate for freedom probably never obtains.