Ringing in the New by Reflecting on an Overlooked Place

2024 is upon us.  Time to ring in the new!  So, following a recent workshop at the McMichael Gallery, I wanted to try out some new approaches for capturing the play of light in the landscape.  The workshop instructor, Dominik Modlinski, focuses on remote landscapes in the far North and/or high in the mountains.  My subject was a little less exalted:  a beaver swamp in the Millbrook Preserve. 

Like many, I find the dreary stillness of wetland areas fascinating.  Is it because, in our own makeup, we’re much closer to their primordial ooze than to dramatic mountain vistas?  Few of us breathe rarefied alpine air, but in our daily life, things are always brewing below its murky surface. . . sort of like what you find in a swamp. Emerson ends his poem Music with the lines “There, in the mud and scum of things, always, always, something sings.”  This image is my attempt to capture some of that.  (Click on it to enlarge.)  Let me know what you think.

In that spirit, we’ll see what rare flowers–or rough beasts–the new year brings.  I hope it is fruitful for you and yours!

Happy New Year!