Inspired by Return of Spring by Ken Backhaus
Sandy Conlon
Art Song
From this solitary labor springs forth abundant perspectives, myriad ways of seeing patterns of color embodied in the odd and beautiful things of this world. American poet Wallace Stevens saw at least 13 ways of looking at a black bird. Now here we are in the museum with maybe 113 ways of looking – aspen trimmed in saffron, sea-green and sky-blue oceans, picturesque lakes, horses whinnying in the morning mist, seascapes, fruits and flowers, and just five small black birds sweet trilling in the willows, sure harbingers of spring. Hillsides of terra cotta, amber, and burnt sienna, human faces and faraway places, 113 perspectives – fields in winter white, silver-streaked rocks and rills like tungsten steel in the afternoon light reflected in the eye of a blackbird. Blackbirds I have known lurk in timber breaks and moss-green meadows by riverbanks, fluttering about searching for crumbs and seed. There’s no mistaking them for shades from the underworld or shadow partners in some mystic union. 6 | EKPHRASIS 2022
