a sense of place

I have spent a few days enjoying western Wisconsin, whose geography, flora, and fauna are about as different from southern Utah as can be. It is a more intimate landscape, and, to a westerner, is noticeably eastern, as in east of the continental divide. The Mississippi River is a stunning geological marker, with backriver deltas, wooded islands, and marshes abundant with birds. Low limestone cliffs define its broad valley, and vegetation is everywhere. The surrounding country consists of rolling hills created by the detritus of glacial deposits, and is also heavily wooded. The humidity in the air softens the views. Dampness predominates, as represented by the beautiful if soggy cobweb in the photo at left. The contrast of this landscape to the Southwest's long horizons, huge skies, bare rock formations, and atmospheric clarity could not be more striking.

Up close, one finds water and more water, not only in the river and it tributaries, but in morning dew, afternoon rain, dripping trees, moss, puddles.

This is Rebecca Crowell's home turf, and as I experienced it in its late summer dress, I was struck with a new understanding of her aesthetic, her palette, her style, her textures, her marks. As I pursue the expression of my own artistic ideas, I imagine that I too will develop distinctions that reflect my sense of place in my desert-mesa-canyon home. Tomorrow I begin the journey back there.