Imported Vines

“This vine has evolved from the hills of ancient Italy and France to the Northern California wine country. The vines themselves are works of art, either flowing as green ribbons into distant valley vistas or in their twisting close encounters beneath dusty bunches of ripening berries.

“In a sense, this portrait of my revered grape vines is a still life . . . but is it? In their guided freedom they are not “still,” but rather, they grow. In all their sun-drenched glory, they simply do what they do: reach for the light and air, winding up from the fertile earth to produce the beautiful fruit that makes so much happiness. And so it seems their lives go on forever. Can that be still life?”