$20
Item#: 2007SYR02
11x17-inches, printed on heavy weight (100-pound) Hammermill cover paper. We package each print with a piece of chipboard in a clear plastic sleeve.
You also receive…
An information page with photos of the artist and poet, and hand-written comments from each.
Medium- and large-format posters are available by custom order. Contact us for details.
Breathe in—step, crunch, look.
Red, gold, orange, brown—breathe out
Fall in Syracuse
I like the transition seasons—spring and fall. Spring is the best, but fall is right up there, and it was fall when I wrote this. Fall is a very sensory time. You hear it, you feel it, and you see it, of course. It's a huge gift—the big burst of color and enjoyment that nature gives up before we head for our famous winters here.
So I was trying to capture the idea of being really present—being in the moment on a fall day. Not wanting to be anywhere but here—Syracuse. Really enjoying it, celebrating it—a beautiful time.
We started this project in the fall, and I was very much in the fall spirit at the time. I wanted to create a picture that people could associate with fall in a collective, unconscious sense. Not a painting about a specific scene—more about the sense and feeling fall gives you, which seemed to be the aim of the poem as well.
I grew up in Liverpool, and since childhood, I've traveled up to the Adirondacks to go climbing in the High Peaks each fall. That's probably why I love fall so much. Up there, you're completely surrounded by it, from the cold air to the leaves changing color, and you gain a real appreciation for the incredible change that's taking place as the world prepares for winter.
It's difficult to encapsulate such a fundamental notion in a single image, and I met several limitations during the execution of the painting. I hope that despite this, my image still accentuates the mood created by the poem.