Author. Artist.
As I reflect on my two weeks at the park, I remember the people, landscape, history, and animals that came together to make the experience so meaningful. Each day the park introduced me to something or someone new – the golden field of buttercups at […]
Monday, May 8, 2017 Mixed media day! I was excited to begin work on a fun new project that combines history and nature with images and words from the battlefield. I’ve been thinking about this idea for a while and was anxious to get all of […]
Thursday, May 4, 2017
It was a bit breezy this afternoon on the terrace of the Visitor Center, but the view is so inspiring for any artist. I am fortunate (as is everyone else here) to join sculptor Cynthia Rusnak who is the other Artist-in-Residence for these two weeks. She is creating a Bobwhite Quail from alabaster for her project. It was so interesting to hear about the process she will use and how she sees the quail in the stone already.
The beautiful, solemn space on Henry Hill provides so many ideas to write about and draw, but today I chose this wise old multi-trunked Eastern Red Cedar whose actual age has not been determined, but most here agree it was probably here during the battle on July 21, 1861. I couldn’t resist the furrowed bark and gnarled branches of this witness to battle and sorrow.
Looking out over this now serene space, I thought about how nature embraced, without judgement, those who never left here. These green meadows, sprinkled with golden buttercups their final resting place. So many living things perished that day. But now this verdant spot is a reminder of the resilient power of nature.
Wednesday, May 10 It is a glorious day in the park today – blue sky, a few white cottony clouds. I would guess the temperature to be about 65 degrees. I hiked up to the Thornberry House today, one of my favorite places here in […]
During my Artist-in-Residence time at the Manassas National Battlefield Park, I had every intention of writing and posting on this blog each day. But, that didn’t happen and though I missed some of those daily deadlines due to a creative struggle between writing and painting/drawing, […]
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
After a brief introduction to supplies on hand (including my favorite watercolor pencils) we dispersed a bit to find our own spot to reflect and record our impressions. The history of this place provides an interesting background for our journaling. Soldiers, cannon, and horses crossed this stream on July 21, 1861 on their way to what is now known as Henry Hill, where the main battle of the day was to take place.
All of the trees in this area were cut down to provide better sight lines and to use in constructing
makeshift roadblocks. The shade would have felt good on that hot, humid July day so long ago. Today, oak and hickory trees abound.
This Stone Bridge replaced the one blown up by Union troops as they retreated. How peaceful and verdant this spot is today.
Our journaling session yielded many lovely sketches of the bridge, the water, and the trees. Thank you to all of those who attended, including park rangers Kaitlyn Shermer and Courtney James who helped with set up.
I heard a rustling in the grass nearby. “Hey turkey,” I called. No, this was not a lost hiker who had wandered up to the patio where I was working. This was a real wild turkey, walking at the edge of the woods behind the […]
May 1, 2017 The first time I looked at the clock this morning, the numbers glowed 4:30 a.m. Though I was eager to begin the day as Artist-in-Residence at Manassas National Battlefield Park, Civil War spirits might have been the only ones there at that […]
As I began to plan for my Artist-in-Residence experience at Manassas National Battlefield Park, I thought about how and why the park is important to me. I hike there often and enjoy sketching along Bull Run and at the Stone Bridge, where I also go to admire spring wildflowers. The beauty of this special place can sometimes make one forget, just for a moment, the sorrow lingering beneath the soil.
During my time at the park, I will work to capture the layers of history and nature here –the ways in which the two have coexisted. Battles ripped and scarred this graceful landscape, but nature soothed and reclaimed the land and pays homage to those who perished here. History and nature, sorrow and beauty – all are represented.
Samuel Fiske, (pen name Dunn Brown) soldier in the 14th Connecticut and correspondent for the Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican wrote about this relationship in 1863:
HOW NATURE COVERS UP BATTLEFIELDS
“Did I tell you ever, among the affecting little things one is always seeing in these stirring war times, how I saw on the Bull Run battle-field (sic) pretty, pure, delicate flowers growing out of the empty ammunition boxes, and a rose thrusting up its graceful head through the top of a Union drum, which doubtless sounded its last charge in that batte, and a cunning, scarlet verbena, peeping out of a fragment of bursted shell, in which strange vase it had been planted? Wasn’t that peace growing out of war? Even so shall the graceful and beautiful ever grow out of the horrid and terrible things that transpire in this changing but ever advancing world.”
This article was published in newspapers around the country in 1863.
With my words and art I hope to capture the many layers of nature and history in this special place. I hope you will follow me during this artistic adventure.
I sat on the long, worn wooden bench trying to imagine what the big gray room would have been like on November 18, 1923 – the noise, the somber faces – and how nineteen-year-old Gertrude Glaser must have felt as she disembarked here at […]
