WORK IN PROGRESS PAINTINGS OF WINDFALL

To diptych or not to diptych, that is the question

I am working on a piece for an invitational exhibit at the Miller Art Museum, due in late October. This is for the Door County Land Trust exhibit, "This Land is Your Land" and there are a number of artists doing plein air pieces on site, celebrating  the amazing amount of land that has been set aside for the purpose of preservation and conservation throughout the county, land on which we can hike, meditate, photograph, bird watch, paint--------

I went to White Cliff reserve near Egg Harbor with painting gear and my camera. Steve and I had driven through this area last winter after an assault of ice and wind. On the day I returned last month, there was heat, humidity and a new crop of insects emerging from a recent rain. I was too tired to haul out the paint box, too daunted by the ache in my hip, although a recent shot of corticosteroid in the knee gave me confidence I could walk with my camera for twice as long as normal. So that is what I did. I shot photos of beech trees, images of fading wildflowers and followed a path for about forty minutes, finding trees uprooted from excess wind, or weight of ice and snow. I started thinking about the leviathans of maple now giving it up in the soil, exposed roots  leaving kettles of earth which  were now being overtaken by bracken and woodland flowers and new trees.  I photographed for about an hour, turned around and headed back to the road. 

A few weeks later I took time to review the images and was not impressed with the usual amount of green,  but intrigued with the  patterns of the trees still standing, the light filtering through it all, and the idea of worship. Wind has always driven me to anxiety over the years, and its aftermath  stands as witness to the power when fully unleashed, to re-make the world. The root balls took on an architectural  quality for me, and the idea of a temple emerged. There is the distance is yet to be seen, a Leopold bench, for observing quiet passages that were rendered in the moments after this tree came down. I will return to it again next season to view the progress.   And as for the painting, I will      return to that as well, finalize my intentions, and submit the work, in progress still.