Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Falling Snow


Falling Snow
acrylic on canvas
24" x 24" x 1.5"
Available for purchase from Freshwater Studio & Gallery, Dillon, MT

I've been in a wintry mood lately - that is to say, I've been aching for peaceful, snowy days that make the world a lot quieter and hot chocolate all the more delicious.

Since it's mostly just a rainy mess out here, I found a lot of my atmospheric inspiration from reading a poem by Joanna Klink called "Porch In Snow." It helped to put me in the right mindset for this painting. Originally featured in Klink's amazing book of poetry called Circadian, I first came upon "Porch In Snow" in an absolutely outstanding anthology called Montana Women Writers: A Geography of the Heart (seriously...this is an amazing book. I highly recommend it). Klink is a professor of graduate creative writing at the University of Montana-Missoula.

I just want to share a few lines here to give you an idea of how lovely it is...but you should read the full version via Google Books' preview of Montana Women Writers here. I hate to excerpt from poetry, since the poetry gets so mangled as a result...it's especially hard to share a brief excerpt of Klink's poetry, since every line is so darn good.

"There you are, snow filling the air,
in the midst of silence [...]
Winter, there is no prayer but this,
to hold fast in the time of few choices.
An animal moves through the backyards, its eyes
precise and lit, the premise of everything I believe"
-Joanna Klink, excerpted from "Porch In Snow", from Circadian (Penguin: 2007)


Isn't that just stunning? I hope you'll check out Klink's work and find as much inspiration in her poetry as I have.

2 comments:

Theresa Paden said...

I love the simplicity of color and composition in this painting, yet you also have put a lot of wonderful detail into the animal! Great texture in the background, too.

Gary Keimig said...

You certainly do have an interesting technique, Kristin. And very well done.
God bless and keep up the great work