They came here to seek shelter.

{No this will fit my needs. A postcard collage that features in a forthcoming zine A menagerie of common and exotic animals. I hope you will like it.}

This Monday evening I am thinking about quiet. The quiet sought and found in many public spaces, the secular and the sacred both. From libraries, bookstores, theatres, cinemas, and galleries too, sometimes, to places of worship and cemeteries, there is an atmosphere of hushed all prevailing quiet that I like. It is a quiet yielded by the space, and one granted by our response to the space upon entrance. In such places sheltered, quiet from the outside world can frequently be found. Quiet from the noise of the street, from thoughts that pester at the shoulder, a quiet sometimes Zen-like, sometimes calming. It forms, for me, a refuge simultaneously intentional and unintentional. A quiet space eked out for various reasons but primarily quiet nonetheless. It is the quiet and comforting embrace of such places that when found can be utterly intoxicating; a hiding place, a hideaway, a hideout perfect. It offers the condition of being safe, sheltered from pursuit, prevailing danger, or trouble in whatever costume dressed.

But these places are not always quiet. Such a thing would be unattainable and unnatural. There is the peal of bells, and hymns and prayer sung in the place of worship. There is a mourner in the cemetery sobbing and the lawn mowed nearby. There is the titter of laughter in the library and the whirr of the photocopier machine in use, making copies from the pages of books one after the other. There is the muffled electronic buzz of a mobile in the cinema, and the chomp-chomp of popcorn consumed. There are heavy steps on the gallery floor, loud conversations overheard in the bookstore and the hum of anticipation mounting in the theatre. Things are never all quiet, but they come pretty close to.

Animals featured in many of my collages and various collaborative pieces made with Louise, are often shown on lookout for such quiet refuge. I hope they find it.

And you, do you also seek quiet?

+ Drawing nearer (A new post of mine on Of Birds and Fishes about my animal protagonists.)
+ A lot can happen in a couple of days (Louise's secret project is slowly revealing itself, post by post.)