Where Trees End and Big Skies Begin
For my granddaughter, Hadley.
Annie Dillard wrote about the "secret of seeing": when she could let go of all distractions, preconceptions, and conscious thoughts and see the world again, truly as if for the first time." I watched through your eyes, Hadley, the secrets of seeing again watching your wonder, curiosity, and excitement about what you see every day.
Thank you, Hadley.
- "To look is an act of choice. All creation is in the art of seeing. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled. Each evening, we see the sun set. We know that the earth is turning away from it. Yet the knowledge, the explanation, never quite fits the sight."
-John Berger
Painter J.M.W. Turner’s last words were “The sun is God,” and who wouldn’t want to believe that of an artist whose medium was paint, but also light? Light through clouds, light on water, light fiery and golden through skies that blur into a vast field of color, light from flames engulfing the Houses of Parliament, light through rain, steam and speed.
David Gallipoli