Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, January 18, 1943

     P.M. A painting, from our stair-landing, of the view across Bengert’s garage. All afternoon – I was indeed “rusty” from my long idleness — It was hard to get started, and it was not until the last that anything like boldness or freedom came to me. The finished sketch had enough in it to make me feel good.
     This I hope marks the end of my “doldrums,” with its enervating nostalgia for the old days of my youth. Several times in the last few weeks I had been tempted to “throw in the towel” and give over this winter to going over my 1917-18-20 sketches, mounting the etc. This, I thought would be easier, under the war-cloud, to do than try to do creative work of the present. Easier, but affording little satisfaction. So it was in a mood of desperation that I set out to paint today.
— Charles E. Burchfield, January 18, 1943