1920
graphite on paper
11 x 17 inches
Burchfield Penney Art Center, Charles E. Burchfield Foundation Archives, Gift of the Charles E. Burchfield Foundation, 2006
Void of blue vaporous gas from brick kilns
All kinds of tawny colors, hot grays fill the heavy sky — there are no clouds but the sun does not shine thru very strongly. Cicadas fill the air with song. Heat waves rise from the ground — the whole is a symphony of heat, ghostly odors, and hot brilliant light — deathly quiet.
The void of the life of this valley is awful to Contémplate. Yet it is gripping.
The raw shattered trees sparsely covering the harsh clay-ey hills — raw green & harsh yellow — smoke blackened places
Life at Irondale is hideously raw, crude & primitive — It is splendid in its very brutality. Powerful & awe-inspiring.