01/09/12- ghost of the pine

(glenville, nc)

the first anthotype (prints made from sunlight on plant dye, without the use of a camera) experiment.

pine needles sat here, sat in sun, sat in the dark back of the house. and as they died, they left a mark of their existence, whereupon one idea and image serve as document to the fact that they were here (and that they did, in fact, die). like a scar on the loose skin of your thumb, it's little more than an infrequent thought, and is surrounded by a dampening and frightening realm of those things that are forgotten when departed.

plant memory impacted onto plant memory.

01/04/12- a shade upon the blank palette

(warrensville, nc)

While we were examining the knot in the limbs, the sun had been out with dazzling brightness. Suddenly, it was obscured by high drifting clouds, and in the resulting contrast we beheld shadow profiles cast against the pure snow in the form of the further boughs.

The lines were not clearly defined, and beginnings and endings were difficult to place.

This was the region of the timberline which the bear had passed and died within, and black cliffs later surrounded us as we brewed strong coffee on the blaze.

12/4/2011- a long night, far from home

(the bluff, ashe county, nc)

while living on the bluff's fen, Perkins looked into its waters to find reflections that frightened him down from the mountain. promising to tell what he had seen if he lived seven days, he passed during the sixth night.

"and frost would land where he stepped, and Perkins knew from the ice on the bluff that the devil was come."