Art of the Week

Don Normark: Chávez Ravine and Beyond
on display until October 23rd at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art

Don Normark, Hotel Window Curtains

"Near dawn, an uproar of trucks in the New York City street below awakens me. White net curtains at my open hotel window glow in the palte light of a new day. As I watch, they billow inward on a faint breeze. One enf of the curtain catches on a chair, and as the billow subsides a shape of light is formed that stricks my heart and brings my tumbling unthinking from the bed. I find camera in the darkness, open the lens wide and adjust the shutter till it sounds slow enough. Then I kneel naked in the cold draft, photographing whatever it is that has called me to the window...a gesture of freedom, a whiteness of hope, a spirit that enters." -- Don Normark (1968)

Don Normark
Hotel Window Curtains
New York City, 1968
Gelatin silver Print, 1/25
Collection of the artist