It was my pleasure to have the opportunity to write this story about artwork by Julia Shirar and David E. Kearns at Looky Here, 28 Chapman St., Greenfield.
It will be up through Oct. 24, 2021. I highly recommend making the time to go see this show.
If you can, please support The Montague Reporter. It is a wonderful local newspaper.
Work in progress:
Farm: Cold Awake is an audio project that began when I was surprised by the killing frost in September 2020 at Just Roots Farm in Greenfield, Massachusetts. The summer of the pandemic year felt like it might last forever, but the frost brought home the acceleration of the harvest season and the impending election.
This place was once the community poor farm, and now, when we tend to be farm poor, it provides healthy food and community garden plots.
Access to the land is something I turned my full attention to during the pandemic year.
In a time of political uncertainty and a deadly contagious virus, I was almost shocked that life could spring from the earth, that birds carried on with their flight and songs. Sheep grazed in the neighboring pasture, and napped in the shade of a barn.
I listened, and was startled from despair.
Here is the first installment.
