Helen Davey Cox

The Art

“TREE RIVER” by Casey Klahn  
14.6″ x 19″  
Pastel 
website 

Casey Klahn writes....

The image Tree River is of the Little Hoquiam River (pronounced (/ˈhoʊkwiəm/ US dict: hōk′·wē·əm) and sometime mis-pronounced by me, on purpose, as hō kyim.  It is an Indian name, and the river and my home town, are Pacific tidal regions.  The muddy banks of the river are exposed at low tide, and trout jump frequently, and Harbor Seals are seen all of the time.  It is a tremendously wet environment, and the air is always heavy with rain.

Tree River has several stories of movement for me: the water, the fauna, the flora and the people. I loved the movement in the water and the constant sense of rainfall; Ultimately, I chose to sound-paint the journey of the water. From it’s source as rain,  the droplets form trickles, then streams, flowing ever downward into the river and meandering out to sea; 

I selected the lap-harp for the droplets of rain and the two pianos for the bodies of water (covered thickly for a contained, damped down sound). You can hear the “running” river from piano one, with it’s swirls and eddies; As the river gets closer, piano two adds the bass notes for sea-level. 

From Casey’s Blog featuring another painting from his Hoquiam River series, he mentions that for him, this place has “deeply held observations and feelings”. I chose the accordion to weave the sense of home in this piece.