This particular painting, Night Writing, has its basis in reading Henry David Thoreau’s Expeditions to the Maine Woods. Thoreau was a keen observer of nature in all its ways. On one particular occasion, he had the surprise of waking up to the remnants of a nighttime campfire. He observed the glowing end of a charcoal log. He was delighted to observe this phenomenon, as he had always heard of such a phosphorescence (decaying moose-wood), but had never witnessed it before. His guide, Joe Polis, told him what his Penobscot ancestors had said: in ancient times, these glowing images would travel among the trees. This anecdote is the incubator of the series Night Writing.