Saturday, August 8, 2009

Birches

Birches
Oil on stretched canvas, 16x20


Call me at 860-442-0246 or email me
if you are interested in buying this painting


In college, I took a wonderful class on Robert Frost, with Guy Rotella, a teacher whose insights and mentoring changed me, my outlook and in the end, changed my life, too. I thought of him, and of Frost as I painted this, and when I was able to get on line, here at the Center Lovell Inn (there's not a lot of wi-fi in western Maine), I found the lines that had pulsed inside my head:

These are the closing lines of the Frost poem, "Birches":

I'd like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.
May no fate willfully misunderstand me
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return. Earth's the right place for love:
I don't know where it's likely to go better.
I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

1 comment:

Gail Geraghty said...

Beautiful, Carrie! Is this the same painting you have showing at DAC? It looks much bluer here. That was the one painting that really grabbed me at the show. The poem is a perfect complement. As a person who doesn't know how to describe art, I really appreciate reading your comments. If I were at a show, I'd love to see the comments posted beneath the paintings. But that's just me. Not too many artists have your combined talents, you know.