Tropical Fish Swim Through Vermont Bajada Sky

Copper-toned light washes over a merged bajada slope where alluvial fans converge at the base of a mountain range in Vermont. Midsummer green foliage dots the foreground, while leaves skitter across the dry, dusty ground in invisible gusts. The valley floor stretches wide beneath a sky turning deep amber. Head height above the slope, a dense school of bright orange and blue tropical fish cuts through the air as if swimming through water. Their scales shimmer with impossible translucence against the concrete texture of the rocks and the soft blur of the distant treeline. Shadows from the fish stretch across the gravel, at the base of the impossible school in the physical landscape. The water-like motion of the fish contrasts sharply with the stillness of the stone.