EMILY LEONARD
In Returning

I am always looking for something to unfold; to know again what I have known forever. I am always looking for that which has always been; for salvation and to let it settle at my body.

Two springs ago I returned to Nashville for a show and stayed in my childhood home for three weeks. I took to walking in the woods there first thing in the morning as I had before school when I was young. The same things greeted me in that land as had when I was fourteen. The coat on my shoulders was heavier than before: carrying a bit more tragedy, some loss, a war, weakness, travel. But the peace that met me was the same as always, loving.

These are images of mornings. These are the kinds of mornings when the trees are weary and so sink into their roots, the deepest and the oldest ones. These days feel like the oldest days. The branches are lush and sweeping and I think it must be from a grace that comes of age. They are weary from reaching and holding up so much weight. Here are some things that are always the same; I see it in part. I find a well there and I can’t help but think of repentance, in as much as repentance is returning to a well. In as much as returning is to come up with the coming of the sun. To wake with the knowledge of violence and the certainty of mourning and still to wake. To place a foot onto the same stone out your door each morning and to lead with the next. To watch the land around your house and then to look at the sky. To hear the low loud drill and to walk towards quietness. To know longing and still to long. Here is repentance. So I watch the trees rest into their taproot and I return there too.

 The Meeting Place, 2007
oil on panel
9 x 14 inches
SOLD  

Maybe All Unhappy Ends Are Behind Us Now, 2007
oil on panel
21 x 28 inches
$3200.

Here, 2007
oil on panel
96 x 144 inches
$22,000. 

The Way a Traveler Knows a Traveler, 2007
oil on panel
45 x 62 inches
$6400. 

I Can Stay Here; I Can Hear You, 2007
oil on panel
14 x 21 inches
$2800. 

As the Summer Came Up in the Field, 2006
oil on panel
42 x 64 inches
$6000.

Born With a Weak Heart, 2007
oil on panel
41 x 64 inches
$6200.  

He Came To Meet Me, 2007
oil on panel
48 x 72 inches
$8000.

Sara, 2006,
oil on panel, 4 x 6 inches 
$600

Between Here and Gone, 2006,
oil on panel, 6 x 9 inches 
$1,000

Been Found Again, 2006,
oil on panel, 10 x 24 inches 
$2,200

I Only Seem Alone, 2006,
oil on panel, 30 x 45 inches

Follow That Lonesome Roadside, 2006,
oil on panel, 42 x 64 inches

Take My Hand, 2006,
oil on panel, 56 x 84 inches

Stand Here Beside Me, 2006,
oil on panel, 32 x 48 inches

I'll Wait Where the Light Goes, 2005,
oil on panel, 44 x 64 inches

I Stood Beneath an Orange Sky, 2005,
oil on panel, 15 x 30 inches

Alone and Alive, 2005,
oil on panel, 5 x 7 inches

Breathe it on the Cold Ground, 2004,
oil on panel, 44 x 64 inches