Most of the time walking in nature is lots of fun. Almost a sacred experience for me. Wandering in a forest or a meadow or even along a row of trees on the street can be very meditative. Being in nature is one greatest sources of mental health and solace for me. Having expressed this love of all things that grow --I have to confess something. Sometimes walking in nature can be a little creepy. When I lived in Tennessee, my log cabin was on the side of a mountain. Below it was 6 acres that belonged to the property. The acreage was on a steep Hillside, so even though it gave me a great view of the mountains from the house, it also was difficult to traverse. Soon after I moved into the cabin in late autumn, I decided to go for a walk. I love exploring places where I've never been before --especially in nature. My ulterior motive is that I often find unusual objects while I'm walking. On this day, it was quite chilly. I had read that snakes hibernate in leaves and under rocks in the winter. I thought it would really suck if I woke up a snake while trudging through the undergrowth. Suddenly, a very loud noise shocked me. It took me a moment to realize it was a rifle shot. It was so loud that I actually lost my hearing for a couple seconds. It rang in my ears and actually hurt. Then I thought, that shot sounds like it came from just a couple feet away. I realized that even though there were barely leave still on the trees, the forest had an impenetrable quality. I couldn't see very far ahead because the trees and branches were so dense. I then stopped, wary that whoever fired the shot was about to fire off another one. Therewas somebody else in the forest not far away. They were probably illegally hunting on my property and disturbed me. I quietly began to scamper up the hill. I stopped when I found a lovely piece of melamine-- a synthetic plastic like petroleum by product that they use in doors and so forth' I didn't have any canvas at the time so finding this piece of melamine was a big eeal. It was very heavy, but I I carried it up the hill pondering how I could transform it into a piece of art. With the events in the woods on my mind, I wanted to capture that sense of eerie beauty-- and fear. So I started to wash paint over the melamine. It just say there in puddles. I observed ghat melamine doesn't absorb paint the way canvas does. The paint just kinda lies on the melamine. This makes it difficult to paint because the melamine has a slick non-porous texture. It was alo kind of neat because the polycarbonite retains its own presence. The paint remains very transparent. So I simply floated layers of paint on the surface and then wrapped the whole thing in cellophane. A week later when I unwrapped it, it was still wet. I observee that unlike canvas melamine does not easily breathe so the moisture has noplace to go. I put more paint on it, wrapped the whole thing in cellophane again and pushed the paint around by massaging cellophane with my fingers. This time I left the piece alone for a month and then when I ripped off the cellophane, it was a revelation. A couple weeks later I knew something was missing. The watcher in the wood! I didn't want to paint a literal figure I wanted to evoke the idea of being watched, the feeling. I got out some acrylic, paint pens sketched a side profile view of a presence. Not a person, but a sentient being. Have you ever felt the presence of a watcher in the woods? Have you ever known that somebody was near you in a forest, but you couldn't see them? Have you ever wondered if they were going to hurt you, whether intentionally or by accident?

Artwork Size & Ink Base:

75 x 97

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Daniel Aaron Schwartz

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