Memorial Oak

What killed the oak tree?

It was not clear why the great oak in front of the group of nine around the yard should have died when it did. The other oaks knew but wouldn’t tell me. It could have been its proximity to the electric line and the years of harassment by the power company. However, what I finally noticed was that its shape, the way it bent forward and its major branches extended in arches — these were as if it had been born elegiac. It was from the beginning an oak of remembering. As it lived, it reviewed and remembered. It was forever an oak of the past. It was never sorry, it was always ready, it was never just living.

Aero Dynamic – Sunset, Sunday, 27 May 2012

William Van Doren, AERO DYNAMIC. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

I Dream of Hancock, Maryland

I dreamed I was in Hancock, Maryland, which is a pretty little town and a plain little town, a charming place and a possibly depressing place, it’s difficult for me to say which way it might fall. It follows the C & O Canal and Potomac River on one side and on the other the Interstate seals it in. It’s a long narrow succession of one thing after another, the alternating sights contribute to a binary, sometimes bi-polar impression. I dreamed the main street and its sidewalks were white — by which I mean, whiteness, the quality of being completely blank. Like a metaphysical blank canvas not yet filled in with any sort of reality. That’s the street where we live.

Field of Dreams – Sunset, Saturday, 26 May 2012

William Van Doren, FIELD OF DREAMS. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

Those Woods

The woods rise as a wall of deep and bright shades of green beyond the field. These are woods we don’t walk in, beyond the boundary of the place we rent. Today the fields here have been cut and the grass lies low in rows and so the woods wall looks especially awesomely mysterious and tall. We have no idea what’s in there. The depths within could hold terrors, or errors. Mutations, or salutations. A yoga class. A crystal palace. It’s nice to look at a wall of woods every day and never know anything about it.

Recently Buried Treasure – Sunset, Friday, 25 May 2012

William Van Doren, RECENTLY BURIED TREASURE. Sunset from Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on watercolor block, 13 x 19.

A narrative of tonight’s sunset here.