I am feeling quiet amidst the clamor and chaos that surrounds us. So, a short statement for now. These works continue a thread of exploring line and the intersection of drawing and photography. 

I am thinking about place and memory, looking at water and its power to shape a landscape. In this wetland environment we find rejuvenation, life, sanctuary. Protection. All that is needed. Tree trunks, limbs and branches reflect in the water creating a near mirror image. The sky resides below and sits on the water’s surface. My drawings are works in progress and not quite settled. I use the photos as jumping off places, distilling and transforming images, seeing where the drawing leads me.

As I searched for something to say about my artwork, I found myself drifting toward, then pulled, to poetry. It is hard to winnow down to just one poem. I’ve chosen Wendell Berry, The Peace of Wild Things. Berry is an environmentalist, writer, farmer and activist for sustainable agriculture working to protect rural communities. This piece was written in 1978 - another tumultuous time in America.

The Peace of Wild Things

Wendell Berry, 1978

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.