Touching Quiet Reflections In Solitude

Touching Quiet is artist Mindy Weisel s journal from the summer when she was given a fellowship of one month at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, furloughed from the demands of everyday life. There, surrounded by acres of country fields and a deep great silence, she was free to paint as much and whenever she chose. This lyrical journal explores her challenge to deal directly with the quiet and the many varieties she discovered there. On one day of excruciating silence, for instance, we read how she painted a storm. On another morning, in response to the beauty outside her light-filled studio, we discover with her the calm rural landscape she then painted. All twelve of the critically acclaimed paintings in the Touching Quiet series are featured in full color in the book, visually tracing the pattern and sense of place and understanding she found during this one momentous month of solitude. Never have I felt more fulfilled, she says. And with nowhere to run, I did touch quiet.