The Evening Quiet is the Cerimon House’s 2018 Cultural Initiative. It is inspired by the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, A Death in the Family by James Agee. The Evening Quiet is drawn from the prologue entitled, Knoxville: Summer, 1915. This narrative is about being together with one’s chosen family among the sounds of night within one’s neighborhood. The Cerimon House invites others to join in their Evening Quiet during this chaotic time in our country. Go to: cerimonhouse.org for further details.
I was asked to create a series of ink drawings with emphasis on hands to symbolize togetherness, peace and reflection. Each drawing is inspired by the writing of James Agee from Knoxville: Summer, 1915.
“…it has become that time of evening…”
“Now is the night one blue dew.”
“…in a summer evening, among the sounds of night.”
“…next door neighbors talked quiet…”
“One is my mother who is good to me.”
“…fathers…each in his space of lawn…and the water whishing out a long loose and low curved cone, and so gentle a sound.”
“One is an artist…”
“…disguised to myself as a child.”
“…and who shall ever tell the sorrow of being on this earth, on quilts, on the grass, in a summer evening, among the sounds of night.”