Artist of the Day: Dream of Water and Sky - Tricia McKellar

Dream of Water and Sky,No. 6527. Tricia McKellar eyeful.etsy.com blog at http://triciamckellar.com/note99 - photograph of Bogue Inlet at the North Carolina outer banks. Original photograph with digital painting.

This photograph reminded me of the I finished reading last night, Monique Truoung's Bitter in the Mouth. The setting is Boiling Springs, North Carolina, and one of the character's, Baby Harpo, is never without his camera, constantly documenting his family and community. The book is brilliant. McKellar's photograph captures what I was feeling while I was reading it.


Artist bio:
I’m Tricia McKellar, an artist & photographer in North Carolina, USA. I carry my camera with me almost everywhere. My dreamy photographs combine original photographs with digital painting. Wanderlust & the Southern landscape inspire many of my works

This Moment: Salem, Oregon - August 9, 2011 9:56 P.M.

I am lying on the bottom bunk of my nephew's bunk bed with my left foot propped on a burnt sienna- colored pillow. A magnet is taped to my ankle and a large ice-filled ziploc bag is wedged against the joint. Earlier at the Mt. Angel monastery I found a hawk feather on the outer edges of the cemetery, bent to claim it, then called to my nephew, waving the feather. This is where I fell and twisted my ankle. I sat level with the stone crosses, the neat rows of graves beneath. I cursed to relieve the pain. I remember two hawks perched on the water tower lifting into the air and floating in slow spirals. I yelled, leave me alone, like a child to everyone calling to me in concern. I wanted to be left alone with the pain. The swelling is going down. The house is filled with muffled conversations and laughter vibrating through the walls. Silence now. I return to the stone grotto with it's white Madonna behind glass, standing on the world, arms at her side, palms open. I wanted to climb to her, clasp her hands and listen to the sound of my own heart. Perhaps I am falling so that I will listen, so that I will kneel. There is a quiet knocking in the house, as if someone is rocking, like a heart beating.