by CATE MCQUAID
The Boston Phoenix, 10/15/93
Frederick Franck writes in "The Zen of Seeing" that "to stop rushing around, to sit quietly on the
grass, to switch off the world and come back to the earth, to allow the eye to see a willow, a bush, a
cloud, a leaf, is an unforgettable experience." Prilla Smith Brackett has done just that in "Marking a
Year," the companion exhibit to "Living Water." Brackett committed herself to drawing one work-on-
paper each day between March 20, 1991, and March 19, 1992. The sketches, grouped by month in
weekly columns, are the documents of this daily meditation.
The same conjunction of branches in a sycamore by the Charles appears every day for a week,
drawn first in spare lines, then with swift graphite shading. Each study has muscle and life,
exhibiting a single-minded attentiveness to the tree.
Inspiration doesn't visit every day. The brilliance of a rhododendron in spring may be too dazzling; a
sketch of an airplane across a runway, drawn as Brackett traveled during the year, seems
perfunctory. But as a body of work, "Marking a Year," does its job; it makes you see, through the
artist's eye, the unique quality of every petal and every line, and it reminds you of the best reason
for making art: for its own sake.
©Cate McQuaid 1993