The land is us and we are it, spun together with the heavens. One is thankful, then, for the kindly self portraits created by Duren. In Leonardo's Treatise on Painting, reference is made to stains on walls. "You may see in those stains the images of various landscapes, outlines of mountains, rivers, crags, trees, plains, manifold valleys, and hills." The stains, streaks, scratches, and rubbings of Duren's work, whether figurative, realistic, or abstract, bring us inevitably back to the mirror, for a bittersweet reflection.

We are used to our human voice speaking back to us. That Italian, French, or Spanish portraiture
has international fluency, is accepted without the realization of language. This same acceptance accompanies the viewing of a Duren landscape, be it realistic, or painted within the body of
a piano.