June 07, 2005
dreaming of green
I'm dreaming of rain.
It is winter in Adelaide. It is warm and there has been no rain. The ground is dry and cracked.
Ken Duncan, Kakadu Dreaming, photograph
The weather forecasters say the rains are on the way. When they arrive up they turn out to be just the odd shower or two.
Ken Duncan, Outback Oasis Northern Territory
Yeah, I know. The style is very conservative--Hans Heysenesque, it is touched with romanticism, and it is about the beauty of wildnerness.
How does this kind of work understand beauty? As symmetry. As God's creation or identical with God? As something timeless? As that which pleases?
I'm dreaming and dreams have their own logic, don't they.
Update: June 8
The rains have arrived, finally. The tarmac at Adelaide airport was wet when I got back from Canberra this evening. It was not much though as it just wet the ground. More rain is expected on Thursday, according to the weather bureau. The promise is that these will be soaking rains.