Charleston Morning 

Editor: So, here we have Dan Graziano’s painting "Charleston Morning," an oil-on-canvas plein-air piece done in an Impressionistic style. I’m immediately struck by the dreamy, almost ethereal quality. The color palette is gorgeous! What do you see in this piece? Curator: Dreamy is the perfect word. The lavender sky bleeding into the soft gold of the building... it whispers of a world just barely awake. And that building, could it be a church steeple piercing the dawn? Graziano captures a moment, a fleeting feeling more than a precise rendering. The visible brushstrokes pulse with life; they are small and fast and light. Doesn't it feel less like observation, more like remembering? Editor: I see that! It definitely feels more like a memory than a photograph. Almost hazy. Do you think that hazy quality speaks to a deeper meaning about time? Curator: Perhaps. Or perhaps it is about what remains when time passes? That structure, it will stand. It stood before Graziano painted it and will continue to stand. In this image, does the spire feel like an arrow aimed at divinity, or a plumb line weighted in this very world? I would love to hear what people think as they consider this small and moving image. Editor: I never thought of it that way – it makes me want to slow down and savor each moment. Curator: Isn't that the delicious trick art pulls on us? It stills the world. I think Graziano succeeds in helping us understand how vital these precious and quiet mornings truly are. Thank you for making me slow down.