ELLEN PECKHAM: “An adolescent, chafing against my provincial environment, I saw Breughel’s winter landscapes and suddenly my geography (snowy fields, stubble, crows) had aesthetic value. Ah, the shock of knowing farms out of season to be so beautiful! Many years later, driving on Long Island, a landscape of rutted earth, frosted surfaces, rusted foliage, crows and red snow fences waiting their purpose reminded me of the sequence and (my husband was driving) I grabbed a handy envelope going to the mail and noted the words and sketched the landscape. Though I often use both in my art it is unusual for the text and image to be simultaneous. Usually I write a poem and then begin to ‘see’ behind it or am working on a drawing when it speaks to me.”

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AUTUMN

Ocher darts.
Breughlian crows in a striated field.

Red fence leaning not yet against
Not yet snow.

–from Rattle #29, Summer 2008
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