Nothing to See Here

Sweet Nothing in Neon
Portland, Oregon

If you have nothing to say,
say it in neon.

Nomadic Month

Seagulls lining up on
St. Pete Beach, FL

For a variety of expected and unexpected reasons, I've been traveling a great deal over the last month.

Cemetery in McNeal, Arizona

First I journeyed from my former home in New Mexico to St. Pete, Florida.

Once returned to NM, I packed up and drove up to Portland, Oregon, stopping over in McNeal, Arizona and Klamath Falls, OR.

Flowers blooming in Portland, Oregon

From Portland, OR, I flew the friendly skies out to Portland, Maine.

I've seen weather fluctuating from 8 inches of snow to balmy sea breezes and 75 degrees, and zipped up and down from sea level to snowy mountain passes.  

In flight

Through all of this, I've kept my camera stashed in my purse, and managed to make good use of it here and there.

Sunset from car window,
Portland, Oregon

(I've also taken quite a few dreadful photos, rambling around rest stops to stretch my legs or sitting in doctor's offices blessed with surprisingly nice water views, and other places when I needed to pause for a moment. I'll keep those masses of less successful photos to myself.)

Hwy 97 north of Klamath Falls, OR

Lovely shots or not, I find focusing on images relaxing, a quick and easy way to tune down the incessant whirring of my sometimes overactive mind.  

After a month, I can tell you: this country is very large, and gorgeous in a myriad of ways.

I presume at some point I will be more clear on what season it is and what time zone applies to me.  We'll see.

Independence at the Portland Museum of Art

Calder mobile, Portland Museum of Art

I spent the afternoon on the 4th of July at the Portland Museum of Art.  Photography is not allowed for most paintings at the museum, but the Calder was free game. Mobiles continue to make me cheery for no reason.

The John Marin, "Modernism at Midcentury," show at the museum is definitely worth seeing, although I confess, I lingered longer by the Magrittes upstairs in the main collection. I loved the cubist leanings of Marin's seascapes, geometry layered over natural ocean chaos. From a how-does-he-do/see-that persepective, it was immensely useful, an entrance into his vision. 

Magritte's surrealism feels like a poem though -- the world explained by setting vision askew.