The Rivers Kept Speaking

The Rivers Kept Speaking

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The Rivers Kept Speaking
oil on gallery wrapped canvas
36 x 36 x 1.5 inches
This item is unframed but ready to hang
(click on the image to purchase)


​On the fifth day
the scientists who studied the rivers
were forbidden to speak
or to study the rivers.
The scientists who studied the air
were told not to speak of the air,
and the ones who worked for the farmers
were silenced,
and the ones who worked for the bees.
Someone, from deep in the Badlands,
began posting facts.
The facts were told not to speak
and were taken away.
The facts, surprised to be taken, were silent. 
Now it was only the rivers
that spoke of the rivers,
and only the wind that spoke of its bees,
while the unpausing factual buds of the fruit trees
continued to move toward their fruit.
The silence spoke loudly of silence,
and the rivers kept speaking 
of rivers, of boulders and air.
Bound to gravity, earless and tongueless,
the untested rivers kept speaking.
Bus drivers, shelf stockers,
code writers, machinists, accountants,
lab techs, cellists kept speaking.
They spoke, the fifth day,
of silence. - JANE HIRSHFIELD

I am becoming increasingly dismayed by the erasure of facts.
The annihilation of evidence.
The replacement of truth.
It's up in my craw, twisting my britches and ruffling my feathers.

Much of my life has been filled with gaslighters, manipulators and the attempted obliteration of Lola.
And so, these larger trends in the world feel deeply personal and prickly.
​One day at a time. Holding fast to what I know to be true,
I stay the course down the river, which keeps speaking of rivers.  

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About the art:  a paint over of a much older acrylic piece (image follows). I began this one in August, slowly painting over in layers of washes, building the composition and allowing small parts of the original painting to peek through. Much of the new piece was painted wet-into wet with long drying times in between to preserve the developed layers.

While we were hiking in California this fall, we hiked along a wide, brisk, rolling, tumbling river. And so when a river of sorts appeared in the paint upon our return, I embraced it. A brighter, more modern painting than the original and somewhat symbolizing transformation and hope, the truth-speaking of the rivers.  :)

The underpainting - an acrylic abstract

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Thanks so much for all the comments, emails messages and feeback about the Question Exchange series on YouTube! I'm just delighted! The exchange with November winner Dotty S is underway (and is going to be something out of the box!). In the meantime, the December Giveaway is ON! Leave a comment on any blog post this month to be automatically entered!
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