Russell Steven Powell

Spring Sound, oil on canvas, 16×20

THE VIBRANT DRONE of tractors spilling earth in early May is as indelible and fleeting as the coarse trill of red-wing blackbirds alighting in a sea of worn cattails on a foggy March dawn, the deep purr of peepers illuminating bell-clear April nights. The air vibrates with anticipation of another season of bounty from the warm, fecund earth.