The Buffalo River in Autumn

The Buffalo River in Autumn (2002)

I remember the sticker shock of nature when I first moved from the flat geometry of the Great Plains to the forested hills of the Ozarks. Vast sky shrunk down to dense woods.

Some friends I'd met in graduate school hauled me out for a canoe ride on the Buffalo River one early October morning. As a fine mist wafted up from the river, the canopy of trees over my head exploded in vivid reds, yellows, purples, oranges, and browns -- and the wobbly canvas of the painted leaves reflected back from the blue water. Some of the colored leaves had given up, fallen, and were now beside the boat and drifting in the slow current.

I'd never seen anything in the world like that place. Until, one day, twenty-five years later, this fractal-based digital image appeared suddenly on my computer studio monitor.

And, now, here is your view as you look just over the side of the canoe.

Feel free to trail your fingers in the water, if you like...