• Let's Pretend
  • See & Feel: A Whole Person Approach of the Arts in Support of SEL
  • "We Are Worthy" Collaboration
  • Ink Flow Figures
  • 2020 Series
  • Echoes Series
  • Southern California Series
  • Here and There Series
  • From Here Series
  • SkyLines Series
  • Notes
  • Contact
  • Menu

Julie B. Smiley

  • Let's Pretend
  • See & Feel: A Whole Person Approach of the Arts in Support of SEL
  • "We Are Worthy" Collaboration
  • Ink Flow Figures
  • 2020 Series
  • Echoes Series
  • Southern California Series
  • Here and There Series
  • From Here Series
  • SkyLines Series
  • Notes
  • Contact
Hwy20, Westward before 5, in progress. April 2015

Hwy20, Westward before 5, in progress. April 2015

Fall

September 15, 2015

Two years ago, on the way to the funeral of a dear friend, I stopped to spend a quiet moment on one of my favorite trails in Prairie Creek Redwoods Park.  While I got out of the car feeling a little fragile about impermanence, I found myself physically responding to the wood's colors and falling leaves with a leaping heart.  I wrote the following poem as I walked on the trail there, but the experience itself and the poem rushed back to mind as I painted this orchard's yellows and tried to capture the idea of the ephemeral tracks between its rows, the blur of branches as one drives so quickly by. 

Prev / Next