Charles Burchfield, Journals, December 3, 1947

Dec. 3 (Wed.)

Another dark damp day – raw wind from S.W. [southwest] with a “spit” of rain at times. AM unpacking two boxes.

P.M. In studio – studying various pictures – “December Sun” “Star Pierces the Clouds” and “Black Iron” (the last one of the pictures just returned – I see now that it is unbalanced, and needs to be enlarged and something in the upper right hand corner, in the sky, to balance the terrific “pull” of the counter-weight ends of the bridges on the left).

The clouds thicken, and mid-afternoon it is very dark.

A dream – Someone, (possibly the publishers) had sent me an  advance copy of a new book – the world as it appeared to a child (in this case, a girl) – with many illustrations by some young artist. As I leafed thru it, all at once I myself, was in the farm home of the little girl – it was L-shaped, and I stood in the hall at the corner. I thought that the pictures were marvels of imaginative power, and conventionalization, a true visual record of the actual “visions” of a child. One was the light coming into a window over the top of an old Victorian chair, or bed-stand. The halation of light as it broke over the object, was conventionalized into a beautiful significant design, full of the glory of a child’s innocent & unquestioning belief in God. I felt a warm protectiveness surrounding me, from all corners of the house. Each picture, as I looked at it, became translated into the actual scene of the house itself, so that I, in truth, was the child, grown up, but being allowed a peep into a lost world.

Evening Hank & Mart take us to Seneca to see two “re-issues” – “When the Daltons Rode” [1940] and “Destry rides again” [1939] – The first named as top-notch western thriller the second not so good, but having good moments.

Charles Burchfield, Journals, December 3, 1947