en passant

I feel the silence of Hammershoi in the landscape,
Like an echo.    

4AM
Not a soul in sight.
The abandoned fields cloaked in fog.
The horses blurred in the far off distance.
The abandoned tractor, glistening red, the bare window, the lonely cat. Silence.

Paintings by Hammershoi in the museum:
The woman at the table, facing the window,
writing, waiting. 
Always the same bowl, the same rooms, expectant.
Open doors.  The bowl on the table filled with milk?
Stillness.  

Memory aching in my bones, this landscape,
Home.
The Viking graves and fjords, awash with vanished history.
Wild blueberries, and birches, carcasses of small crabs by the hundreds, wild swans.
Stones from Norway on the beaches, carried by glaciers.
Fish cooked on juniper.
The remote quiet isolation.  Contemplation.
Island.   

(Danish symbol for island, O with a line through it)

2012, series of 18 archival inkjet prints, edition of 5

Exhibitions
Art Mûr, Montréal, Québec, 2012

Awards
Cultural Event, Prix Lux, 2013