Here Comes the Breaking

    I completed this piece during an unplanned trip that spanned from my home in Montana to the Washington coast during a time of great turmoil for some of the people in my immediate circle, in addition to the general havoc the pandemic was continuing to wreak on the world at large. It’s a breathtakingly beautiful drive, and it was an excellent reminder of both how breathtaking other places can be and how much I love my own little cottage home in the northwestern Montana woods; this work was my way of evoking the shades of home in a time of emotional turbulence. Russia had recently opened war on Ukraine, and the idea of home had become that much more precious. There is no division between personal and political when people’s lives are on the line, no matter where you live; this piece celebrates the constant coexistence of joy and sorrow, a litany of coping mechanisms and desperately pragmatic optimism.