Field Notes for Two Voices

Press ‘Play’ to hear the author read their piece.

Shepard Tone: an audio illusion of a tone that
continually ascends in pitch yet seems to get no higher.

– The Center for the Study of Perceptual Experience

Tightening of the aperture
Finding the far encampment
California condor Forest owlet Black-
Poison pellets marking trails
capped vireo Layson finch Short-tailed
albatross Whooping crane White-necked
Watchwoman at the window
petrel Ivory-billed woodpecker Cerulean
Knots of indigo dye bubbling in a pot
warbler Island scrub jay Gunnison sage
grouse Golden-cheeked warbler Tricolored
Brownfields echo incantations
blackbird Millerbird Marbled
Vanishing tongues written in ash
murrelet Becknell thrush Bachman warbler
Pink-footed shearwater Bahama swallow
Smoking bonfire of paper pulp
Tightening of the aperture
Red-legged kittiwake Saltmarsh
Finding the far encampment
sparrow Ultramarine lorikeets
Ashy storm petral Snowy
Poison pellets marking trails
owl Bengal florican Yellow-breasted
Watchwoman at the window
bunting Grey parrot Pinyon jay
Spotted kiwi Greater green
Knots of indigo dye bubbling in a pot
leafbird Regent honeyeater Rusty
Brownfields echo incantations
blackbird Mariana fruit dove
Olive-winged trumpeter
Vanishing tongues written in ash
Grey-headed albatross Northern
Smoking bonfire of paper pulp
bald ibis European turtle dove
Atlantic puffin Thick-billed parrot
Smoking bonfire of paper pulp
Smoking bonfire of paper pulp

Ellen Sheffield is a visual artist and writer whose artist’s books explore the intersection of text and image. Her artist’s books can be found in collections across the country from Yale University’s Beinecke Library to the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. She teaches Book Arts at Kenyon College in Gambier Ohio as well as virtual workshops for the New York Center for Book Arts and other book arts centers.

… return to Issue 13.3 Table of Contents.