As I walk I begin to leave behind the visual noise of town. A welcome insulation of stillness falls around me. I breathe in the cool air and breathe out the hot fire of pressing thoughts.

I notice how the light falls and illuminates certain patterns, my eyes begin to open to what is there before me. I start to notice all the life within the pulsating silence.

Patterns begin to emerge.

A surprise bridge brings a direct encounter with the thick, slow movement of a partially frozen river in all her delicious darkness.

She unfolds herself leisurely, sensuously winding along the frozen shoreline.

I am taken with her dark beauty and pause to watch & listen as her shimmering reflections speak in all their nuances of grey.

An unexpected light thrills me with warmth, illuminating the river's wintery & somber demeanor.

She radiates a glowing smile from her sleepy winter journey.

I watch attentively as she reveals more of herself in undulating curves of such beauty that I feel myself falling...

in love again. Her beauty has no limits, as she begins to speak through her curves, her shapes, her sounds, her colors..

I can feel only love, expressed in curves so sweet I want to cry out in wonder.

Shapes shift.

Water moves.

Perception is altered. I am restored. I will return to my studio and attempt to translate into paint this river's rich and resonant voice of winter.