Easter Thoughts

Sacred Heart Church, South Natick, Massachusetts
April 5, 2015

It's Easter Sunday and I went for a walk in the neighborhood. There's Sacred Heart, a Victorian-era Catholic church; it's for sale. If you bought it, we could be neighbors. I think about the abandoned church and all the new non-human life that has moved in since the congregation was forced out. I imagine oak trees growing in the chancel and generations of mice and sparrows in the sacristy. Pigeons roost up top in the sun but inside the air is filled with dust motes, rainbow colored sunbeams and the fluttering of sparrows.

A little further away on my walk, Pleasant Street crosses the Charles River. I descended a steep bank on the sunny east-facing side and drew the arches. The water is high and moving swiftly downstream to Boston Harbor 30+ miles away.

Pleasant Street Bridge
charcoal, ink
April 5, 2015

Pleasant Street sustains a lot of commuter traffic but it's quiet on weekend mornings so I stand on the bridge (there isn't a sidewalk) and draw the island and the dam. Still, I try not to stay there too long (20 minutes); people were up and about driving to Easter church services and my fingers were getting cold. In the drawing below, you can see that the island is completely covered with water. Now and then a big slab of ice would bob along and linger in the eddies in the lee of the island.

View of the isnad and dam from the Pleasant Street Bridge
charcoal, ink
April 5, 2015