9 January

Last light, Sheldon Road

by Jon Katz
Sunset, Sheldon Road

There are few things in my life that I love more than driving around in the last minutes of daylight, looking for the uncoutable ways in which the light plays, fades and changes. Often, I say to Maria, I wish I had stopped back there at those hay wagons, and she will say, do you want to turn around. No, I always say. I don’t go back. The light will be different, the moment lost. Besides, there will be something good on ahead. And usually, there is. I caught the sun just as it was dipping below a mountain, and caressing Sheldon Road, at it’s last darkening bend.

9 January

Dogs On The Path. Spirits Of The Woods

by Jon Katz
Spirits Of The Woods

“And then his planter’s eye fell on that parson’s fine fair lady again.

‘O Holy plowman,’ cried she,

‘I am all grown up with weeds.

Pray, bring me back into good tilth.’

He tilled her carefully

and laid her by, and she did bring forth others of her kind,

and others, and some more.

They sowed and reaped till all

the countryside was filled with farmers,

and their brides sowing and reaping. When they died

they became spirits of the woods.”

— Wendell Berry, The Mad Farmer Revolution.

9 January

Deer Stand, in the woods

by Jon Katz
Deer Stand

Maria and I love the woods, it is a secret and mysterious place with a life of its own. The dogs become purposeful in the woods, noses down, busy and intense. We see all kinds of tracks, scat, the occasional corpose or sign of flight and struggle, the echoes and shadows and traces of the night. And every now and then, a deer stand, where hunters wait for hours, days.

9 January

Last light, Rupert Mountain. Collaborative Art

by Jon Katz
Last light. Collaborative Art

Maria and I went out for a late lunch and the cold and wind shrieked over Rupert Mountain. I took this photo as the last light streamed over the mountain and lit up the white enow. I like the symbolism of this photo, light to dark, day to night, winter tree against the snow, shadows everywhere. This is also part of a collaborative art project with Maria. We agreed to do something together for the Gallery 99 affordable art show in Glens Falls February 10-13 at the Empire State Theatre.

I offered this photo, and Maria will take it from there, seeing it it translates into one of the art pieces she is making for Gallery 99. We’ll see. I’m not sure our relationship can survive a collaborative art project, but I told her that once I give her to the photo, it’s her art. I have no say in that. That might work. I love the light, tho.

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