Art Away from Home

I was lucky to spend last weekend in Portland, OR, for a class for work, but every spare moment was spent reading Rice Freeman Zachery's new book: CREATIVE TIME AND SPACE, exploring, journalling, and eating really good food. (sorry, no food pictures this time, but I ate round smoked salmon raviolli in a light lemon cream with greens and short cake with lemon curd, berries and chantilly cream for dessert (notice the theme) at Veritable Quandry).

In fact, I didn't even take many pictures, looking, drawing, writing instead. Sometimes recording seems to get in the way of experiencing the experience.




Saturday night was a wonderful Thai restaurant on the other end of Park.


Hours in the Portland Art Museum made me hyper-aware of line, shape, color, repeating form. Verticals and horizontals, rich colors in the background, cafe tables and chairs and the leafy boulevard. I am learning to appreciate traveling solo for the opportunity it affords me to go in any direction.


After the museum, I had crab cakes and an amazing chocolate pastry here at South Park Seafood and talked with sister nurses, who had just been to see the last day of the Escher show.



Try going to a museum...or a movie and see if it doesn't make you see life outside in much sharper ways...
I took a self-portrait class from LK Ludwig, and hate the pictures I shoot holding the camera at arms length. I've found that using a big mirror gives a less microscopic (wrinkly) view, and the empty bathroom in the museum had all kinds of repetition and clean form, reminding me of a movie, or several...too bad I didn't have more time to make more pictures, but it might have made some people uncomfortable to see me taking photos in the ladies room.









A spread from my journal, combining words and images...I don't know which is more important to me. I pack a glue stick, a variety of markers, and try to keep it simple. Sometimes the ideas flow without stopping, and it's important for me to catch them and keep them for later inspiration.






I was SO HAPPY immersing my self and my life in ART with all its possibilities...Today, back at home, all the other necessities of bills and cleaning and cooking interfere, but the TANGIBLE evidence that I have those visual/verbal/intellectual priorities, is even more important when the mundane threatens to make me forget who I am.