Waking

Waking
Charcoal, Graphite; 4 3/8” x 7 3/8”

This drawing’s progress, like the last, happened in two stages: The stonework and tree are mostly charcoal, and took two or three sessions; the water, mist, sky are mostly graphite pencil, and took several more.

I like old places. Places where time has softened edges, blurred lines: What was found, what was made? What was this place, or what was it a part of?

Ask a relic hunter, adrift across a long night of strange stars, useless charts scattered about his ship’s wheel- Squinting into brightening mist, stirred, just now, by the morning’s first breezes, and parting: He might know, might recognize the find of a lifetime. Or he might only guess, or imagine, or wonder, much as I do.

Ask a dreamer, nearing the end of her long night’s journey across that sea, or another, or many, all whose names are Mystery- A dreamer who feels, just now, the warmth of morning’s first sunlight on her face: For a moment, she may remember this place, call it by another name. But ask quickly, before she wakes fully, forgets.