(Private Commission) 5"x5", Acrylic on Claybord, September 2007
It's late fall and I am sitting near the
Chena River, taking in the gray slated sky and watching yellow leaves ride the slow moving current. I was thinking how it is time I wrote you, my chosen home town, a love letter. I figured you might be wondering when one would come -- seeing that during June of 2007 I wrote one to British Columbia's
Fort Nelson as I was making my way back to you. Don't worry Fairbanks, my love for that small town was fleeting, there could only be one you.
We first met in the Summer of 1998. I was on break from my studies and thought it would be a good adventure to spend a summer
waiting tables and living in Alaska's Interior. We got to know
each other under the green canopies of cottonwood trees, near blooms of
fire weed and wild iris, midnight
bbq's and late night
badminton tournaments, the red eye road trips to Valdez, Anchorage and Seward, bluegrass weddings in the woods (playing
hooky from work so we could stay together longer and hear the band), drinking coffee in morning sunshine next to strawberry patches and blooming dahlia's. Oh! My delight at discovering your re-use re-cycle platforms, The
Tanana Valley Farmer's Market and Creamer's Field. It was you who taught me about the subtleties of light. You showed me saturated blues and greens,
mountainsides colored by the pinks of
fire weed. You gave me gifts of delicately curled pieces of birch paper and the
Goldstream Valley cloaked in the yellow and orange of Autumn. We wintered together within wooden walls of cabins, in quilted blankets with
wood stoves burning and mugs of Italian press coffee. That first winter with you, remember how we spent hours watching the cream colored moon cast shadows on snowy landscapes while listening to Bob
Parlocha's late night jazz? Those were good times, love.
And here we are, it's been ten years since we first met, and we are together again. Thinking back now, it was obvious the chemistry in our connection. Like it goes with love, you swept me up and stayed on my mind all those years we were apart. I knew then, like I know now -- that one day I would return and stay with you forever.
Last night as I stood
among the
silhouettes of spruce trees and looked out on September's moon, I felt that charge I feel when I am about to paint...
Secrets things whispered in a bath of moonlight, under the sharp lines of leaning trees and starry skies -- I notice
You are opening your landscapes to a new season
and settling in to your long night.
You leave me breathless
from frost lined stories
about a land falling into a snowy sleep, lit in blue moonlight,
charming me in stillness and beauty,
winter's returning.
