As a bookend to the R2R Silent Walk last December, Unison Arts and I planned this spring walk during my exhibition run. Just a few of us this time made for a relaxing stretch of legs and thoughts.
The sensory characteristics of open farm land on a warm May evening were soft and insistent. We smelled, heard, saw, felt, breathed the season.
The following are photographs and a short video to suggest the experience. With them are shared reflections by participants. You can click on photographs to enlarge.
What subtlety in this green.
Sun Dog
Bird Song
Fresh Hay
Sweet Breeze
Sublime kept coming to mind.
Sweet grass fragrance filled the air as redwing blackbirds and bobolinks flew all around us.
We watched the sun descend behind Skytop, the Shawangunk Ridge a silhouette against a painted backdrop.
Thoughts come and go like the playful growl of dogs along the path.
Listening to bobolinks and redwing blackbirds, darting and calling in the grass, I suddenly walked through a pocket of cool air.
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| A line created by recent heavy rains |
Thank you to the Silent Walk participants! These photographs and words help describe what it was like, but nothing compares to actually going on the walk.
Thanks to Unison Arts for supporting the December and May Silent Walk at the River to Ridge Trail. Special thanks to Faheem, Emilie, and Ally. Unison is a non-profit arts organization that brings arts to the center of community life through artist-forward initiatives, arts advocacy, and socially engaged programs. Please support the good work they do here.
Thanks also to the Open Space Institute for preserving lands such as the River to Ridge Trail. Your support helps protect land for people, for wildlife, forever.
Lastly, deepest gratitude to the Silent Walk's (nearly) unseen photographer, Thom Munterich.
All images are his.
