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Still Life
Since Enid Olafsson could not take the landscape with her, she preserved what she could with her paints. Oils, mostly, squeezed onto the same color-stained palate she’d been using for 15 years. Her first painting was a portrait of the man she loved the most: Harrison Schultz, who lost his life in the river. Upon learning of his death, she burned her artistic effort—or tried to—but midway through, as his face began to run, she reached barehanded into the flames to retrieve him. Burned as he was, it was better than nothing, and she placed the remains of her ashen canvas in the trunk in the back of her wagon. Enid left Eau Claire soon after, and for 15 years, had traveled from one small town to another, painting landscapes exclusively. Life was too short for portraiture, she had decided. And there was no one left she hoped to paint. Words by BJ Hollars. Audio narration by Jane Jeffries. Audio recording by Scott Morfitt. |