Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967), Dancing Sunflowers, 1950; watercolor on paper, 30 x 40 inches; Image from the Burchfield Penney Art Center Archives
Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, August 30, 1916
Thursday, Aug 30, 2018
Trains roaring in the black night have suddenly taken on a strange significance.
Yesterday at noon as I looked from my window seeing the vivid sunflowers in the startlingly sunlight; two jagged yellow lines sweeping past marked the course of two butterflies.
While lying on my bed half awake, half asleep I thought of the sort of nature I was now viewing. Unconsciously I went back to the visions I saw two or three years ago and all at once I came to my senses amazed. What was it I had been thinking of?
Again I fell to thinking – was this life I lived for art alone a life of sacrifice of denial / No! All at once I thought of forgotten childish dreams of strange lands & adventures & carefree life and came back to the present with a sudden heart-beating as if terribly frightened.
Charles E. Burchfield, August 30, 1916