Carson, New Mexico, March 2008
They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars—on stars-- where no human race is
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.
It's so hard to explain how Carson draws me.
Even explaining it to myself is difficult. A place of simplicity for me, of vastness and survival. It doesn't frighten me, as Frost suggests. I am full of serenity when I am there, saturated by the scent of the sage; reveling in the brilliant light which illuminates the desert's excruciating demands, exquisite details and challenges. I'm challenged to look inward, and to be completely present in the moment.
It's a huge relief.
So much simpler than real life.
Me estira mi querencia... a phrase I learned in Paraguay. I am drawn, stretched and elongated in spirit towards that which I love... These vistas emerge in my art here in New England, 1500 miles away, 38 years after living there.
In this photo, taken in March I am painting in my front patio there... if that's what one can call a circle of eroded walls sprouting overgrown sage, russian thistle and grama grass.
The painting was not much, but it is the first I've done there in ever so long.
Between stars—on stars-- where no human race is
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.
-Robert Frost
It's so hard to explain how Carson draws me.
Even explaining it to myself is difficult. A place of simplicity for me, of vastness and survival. It doesn't frighten me, as Frost suggests. I am full of serenity when I am there, saturated by the scent of the sage; reveling in the brilliant light which illuminates the desert's excruciating demands, exquisite details and challenges. I'm challenged to look inward, and to be completely present in the moment.
It's a huge relief.
So much simpler than real life.
Me estira mi querencia... a phrase I learned in Paraguay. I am drawn, stretched and elongated in spirit towards that which I love... These vistas emerge in my art here in New England, 1500 miles away, 38 years after living there.
In this photo, taken in March I am painting in my front patio there... if that's what one can call a circle of eroded walls sprouting overgrown sage, russian thistle and grama grass.
The painting was not much, but it is the first I've done there in ever so long.
