Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

“The Cricket House” in New Albany, Ohio

Burchfield’s unique audio-cryptograms made each insect’s sound visible, contributing to an extra-sensory experience. His notation along bottom reads: “Nov 8, 1917 – The Cricket-house lies along a lonely road to the North. In September the black-North of Midwinter is already under its eaves, but the grass-hoppers, katydids & crickets hop and sing in the hot grass round about; October’s blighting frosts silences the songs. Squaw winter whitens the land; then comes Indian Summer with its mellow brick-red afternoons; a solitary surviving cricket creeps forth from a dark crevice in the ground and chirps to the waning sunlight. The house had grown blacker under the eaves.” -- Nancy Weekly