In rivers of lava gushing on black mountains, blue fish swim, leaping up and back under. Deer flee orange skies, gaining new bodies of speed. Then, in the cool of night, spider threads of old minds catch on cactus thorns—teased out by birds for nests. Water drips where a small pool’s eye opens to stars. Above it a cold cave, and the red outline of a hand. A thought there, new once: me, here now, even when my eyes are closed. A stillness entering stone; mineral colors of spring. Opaline; butterfly in chrysalis. Surely rain clouds will come to the desert now. The People, one holding another or being held, the same act at once. And in that place going out will bring the world with it.

Saguaro Sky (oil on canvas painting, 2022)

Copyrighted © by Erin Hanson. All rights reserved.
Appears here with artist’s permission.

*Publisher’s Note:

Black Elk (1863-1950), Oglala Lakota holy man and visionary, quoted in Black Elk Speaks: The Complete Edition by John G. Neihardt (University of Nebraska Press, 2014), page 183. Original printings by Neihardt in 1932, 1959, and 1972.

Full text of the book is available online:
http://public.gettysburg.edu/~franpe02/files/%5BJohn_G._Neihardt%5D_Black_Elk_Speaks__The_Complete_(z-lib.org).pdf

Erin Hanson

(born 1981) is a contemporary American painter based in Oregon, who holds a degree in Bioengineering from University of California, Berkeley. She has been painting since she was eight years old, and is considered the originator of “Open Impressionism,” a style of painting which encompasses wide brush strokes and an alla prima technique where the paint is applied wet on wet without allowing earlier layers to dry. Using as few brush strokes as possible, her unique, minimalist method of placing impasto paint strokes without layering creates magnificent and dramatic landscapes.

Artist’s website: https://www.erinhanson.com/

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Behind-the-Scenes at the Erin Hanson Gallery, a fascinating tour of the McMinnville Gallery and Warehouse (5 April 2023)

⚡ An Interview with Erin Hanson: Impressionist Landscapes Today by Julien Delagrange at Contemporary Art Issue (6 September 2022)

⚡ Interview: Leading Contemporary Impressionist Sheds Light on Her Pioneering Practice by Kelly Richman-Abdou in My Modern Met (21 September 2019)

⚡ Erin Hanson Art at Fine Art America, with more than 600 of her paintings

Daryl Scroggins

has taught creative writing and literature at The University of Texas at Dallas, The University of North Texas, and the Writer’s Garret, in Dallas. He now lives in Marfa, Texas. He is the author of This Is Not the Way We Came In, a collection of flash fiction and a flash novel (Ravenna Press), Winter Investments: Stories (Trilobite Press), and Prairie Shapes: A Flash Novel (winner of the 2004 Robert J. DeMott Prose Contest). His poems, short stories, and creative nonfictions have appeared in magazines and anthologies across the country, including Blink Ink, Cutbank, Eastern Iowa Review, New Flash Fiction Review, Star 82 Review, and Third Wednesday, among others.