Embedded in these nuances were tones of knowledge passed down by those who had arrived in the last two centuries and those who had been here before. The more that was absorbed, the more our language moved and changed with the nuances of the town. On our creative journey we met guides who took us through Eastend’s historical and geographic paths, sharing the history both written, unwritten and to be written. Winter Redux (wet cyanotype on lumen print) We thought we knew the prairies from personal experience and having come of age when classic Canadian writers had created landscape characters in novels and poetry about this expansive, historically layered terrain. We could see this was a place where previous residents had created new directions, gathered from previous artists, were cared for by the town, and works had flown forth.
Inside the Stegner House, artists had left paintings on the wall, books on the bookshelves, ceremonial documents and photographs. On Redcoat Drive and Maple Avenue, businesses housed within buildings that may have served many purpose over the years, and then handed down to the next generation. Later we discovered many had been relocated here and others resurrected, like the Stegner house. We walked through the streets of Eastend and took in the various buildings. Thoughts of Lumen Printing techniques, photographic papers, sheet film and cyanotype methods mixed with my study of the vegetation. It was spare landscape, and the plants were not yet prepared to show a hint of green. In the afternoon during our walks, my eyes fixed on the ground, studying the plants and materials, and contemplating what camera-less photographic material I might use to record a sense of this place. I begin reading to understand the sense of place, foraging through the library, taking in the nuances and history page after page. Alkali Grass in the Morning Fog (Edward Peck) In those curves, the town reaches out into the valleys, coulees, mesas and benches an embracing them and their history. How can one not be inspired by this setting? Over the next few days Edward began to explore the town during his morning walks, camera in hand, and in the late morning driving the roads that curve out from the centre of the town in all directions. On the other side lay the hillside and the river valley. We wandered out back and saw that the Frenchman River, so eloquently described in Stegner’s Wolf Willow, was just across the lane. Between the two rooms, a small, well-curated library of books immediately got my attention, months of books, I want to pour through. The bookshelves were filled with resource books about the area, literary journals, and writers’ guides of all sorts. On the second floor was the bedroom with a view of the street and an office equipped with items we might need to work, everything from pencils to a printer. It allowed us to unpack quickly, settle in and begin to work. A few days after our arrival, we were visited by a Surprise Spring Blizzard, a power outage and an unexpected Winter Redux it was as if they had rolled back the weather to the end of winter. Everything we needed for a comfortable working stay was there for us. Stegner’s Eastend family home on the Frenchman River offered a warm reception. The sounds of travel were quieter on the broadly divided highway moving lazily over and around the subtle undulations of the terrain then we turned onto 21, and the adventure began. We arrived at the Wallace Stegner House in Eastend, Saskatchewan after a three-day journey through the landslides and heavy weather of British Columbia, emerging onto a high prairie and its large skies.
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