Upper Paw Paw, North Carolina, 2012

I remember when I took this photo I imagined calling it "Escape from Babylon". So let's call it that.

I adore this particular gnarly tree on this land. I'm having a hard time knowing what to call it right now, this particular chunk. Kate & Shu's? Rob & Leslie's? The Stilwell place? I guess they're all appropriate but none seem quite right at the moment.

I don't know exactly what I imagine when I look at those strands of wool hanging there on the barbed wire- some harrowing attempt, nearly successful, to escape these confines and go.....? Is barbed wire rather pleasant for scratching unreachable itches for sheep?
I remember it was quite a gray day, this would have been February, and I had a full heart. I think my thoughts and feelings about this sight were more vaguely tragic and pseudo profound than farcical.

I remember seeing it finally and thinking it didn't really turn out. But looking at it now, I rather like it.


I'd like to come back to this image, to these thoughts.

Why did I let myself get so irrationally flustered? Anger/ frustration can grab on and just squeeze your arteries, redirecting your flow! (there's a very particular sketch in my mind of this very thing happening that doesn't transcribe as clearly as it seems it should!)