Invisible!

Canada Geese preening themselves on top of the dam
07-10-12

07-11-12

note: as I started to draw this morning, a view of some ducks through one of the arches of the Pleasant Street Bridge, a small raccoon came down to the river's edge to see what was going on. Don't bother looking for him; I'm not that clever: He's not in this drawing. If he was, he'd be on that flat boulder just to the right of the arch. The raccoon only stayed a half a minute and then ambled back into the forest. I suspect he was up past his bedtime!

Imagine all the things that are not in a life drawing! All the stories and miniature dramas, the comings and goings, the alignments and realignments and the movement of the wind and shadows.

I'm always interested in that first moment when a thing or face is recognized and named. I can be looking directly at something and it simply isn't there …not until my noggin recognizes it. The same goes for leavings too I guess. When was that last moment I beheld someone dear… what did they look like? Better in my memory than in a photo. Life's a mystery.

Innocent Questions

Last Saturday, I sketched an early morning winter forest scene. It was colder than I'd dressed for and in an hour, I was retracing my steps for home. I stopped however, when I discovered a dead raccoon along the nearby road which the melting snow had revealed .

The Charles River in flood
03-13-11, blue china marker on paper

The river is very high now and has risen over its stone retaining walls below the dam. Waves gently flow over the grass. I'm used to seeing the water moving swiftly within the channel; with the high water, the waves are light and one hears hear a gentle lapping sound in addition to the roar of the steady torrent. It's just a small  distinction to be made.

This tiny observation, combined with the raccoon corpse seen the day before (a victim of a snowplow?) I'm reminded of the images coming out of Northern Japan. Indeed, the whole world it seems, offers up a fresh crop of innocent sacrifices from the latest source of violence and catastrophe. We would never wish such calamities on any living person, thing or beautiful place. Why must it be so? Why?