Follow the Sun

Follow the Sun is a setting of Brian Sonia-Wallace’s Stacks — a poem conceived during a writing residency at The Getty, where a few of Monet’s Haystacks are housed. In this series of paintings, Monet used the same subject of wheat or haystacks and painted them at different times of the day, across seasons, and in different types of weather, skillfully capturing the dynamic interplay of light and color.

Over the years, I’ve encountered several of Monet’s Haystacks at prominent galleries such as The Getty, the Art Institute of Chicago, and more recently at the L’orangerie and D’orsey museums during a trip to Paris last summer. Like the paintings, Follow the Sun adopts a loose theme and variation form, where the melodic structure remains consistent as the narrative moves through the seasons.

The original, typewritten version of this poem now lives on the other side of the world, as it was written for two women visiting The Getty from China. They were particularly taken by the soft, ethereal colors depicted in the paintings. Art, like the conversations that inspire it, ripples out across time in unexpected ways. With each passing season, we observe the nuances of light and extend an invitation for connection through this shared observation in a way that predate language and may have even played a role in its evolution.

Follow the Sun is commissioned by the Los Angeles Master Chorale for the 2024 High School Choral Festival; Grant Gershon, artistic director.