Travel Bucket List

Well, I've finally done it - I've posted photos from all of the places I've traveled to.

(At least, all the ones I've traveled to since 2005, when I got my own digital camera and started organizing my photos on the computer. Somewhere there are photos of other places I've visited - but they were trips I took with my family in elementary school and middle school, and either I didn't take the photos myself or I otherwise don't have easy access to them in digital form.)

My point is, that I am all out of source material to post about. I am far from out of source material to use in artwork - very few of the photographs I've posted on this blog have actually been made into drawings or paintings so far, and I still have a lot I could work with for future works - but as for photographs to sort through and post here, my digital folders have run dry.

It's been a long time since I've traveled anywhere or had a "vacation" to speak of. My husband and I join his family in Virginia Beach every year for a week, so we do have that. But rarely do I take photos on that vacation, since we stay in the same place and go to the same beach that we do every year. I've already taken those photos; there is no need to take photos of the same things again.

Lately I have been trying to capture "local" moments. I take photos of the plants in my own front and back yard, or in my parent's or grandma's yard, or at nearby parks, or the landscaping and gardens along Main Street, or the Detroit Riverwalk, or other lovely local places - even supermarkets and local nurseries that have bouquets and potted plants for sale. I have also made a list of gardens around Michigan that might be fun to take a "day trip" to photograph some weekend; maybe one day soon I'll start in on that list.

But the fact remains that it's been a while since my husband and I have traveled anywhere; we certainly haven't traveled internationally since our honeymoon, which was almost five years ago now (!) - not counting Canada, of course, which we did drive through on a short road trip to upstate New York for a wedding. For a while, I was crossing the Atlantic every couple years. I went to France in 2005, I studied abroad in Switzerland/Italy/Greece in 2008, I joined my husband's family on a cruise to Spain/France/Italy/Croatia in 2010, and my husband and I honeymooned in Greece in 2011. But since 2011, we haven't left Good Ol' North America.

We went on an extensive road trip in 2012 - but we crammed it all into a week, so we hardly had time to really settle in or look around in any one place for more than a few hours. We drove to upstate New York for the aforementioned wedding - again, crammed into a weekend. We've driven to see my husband's family near Chicago, Illinois several times over several weekends. And we go to Virginia Beach for a week every year. But that has been the extent of our Married Life Travels so far.

Part of the reason we haven't traveled much has to do with finances. I wasn't working for much of that time, or only working part-time, and my husband was not getting paid enough working as a high school teacher. We also had little time to travel - even though he got summers off as a teacher, he had to do a lot of prep work for the next school year and was often taking summer/evening classes to work on his two Masters. We also prioritized buying a house over travel, investing money and time in our house in Rochester Hills - adding landscaping, getting a new roof and new siding and new installation. And then we got a puppy - which made traveling even harder.

I don't know when we'll plan our next big trip, but that doesn't stop me from dreaming. For the longest time France was my biggest item on my Travel Bucket List; then, once I visited France, it was replaced with Italy. I wanted to see art, and the cities that saw so many important art movements and nurtured so many artists. Now that I've been to the Mediterranean three times (!) those are no longer priorities.

My current Travel Bucket List is as follows -

IN NORTH AMERICA:

1. New York City. I've never been! And for someone who is into looking at art museums and who loves live theater, this is an obvious travesty.

2. Harry Potter World. My husband and I have been talking about making a trip down to Orlando to see the Harry Potter World for ages. One of these days it'll happen!

3. Holland, Michigan. It's only a few hours away, but I have yet to make it to Holland during its renowned tulip season! This could even be a little weekend trip and is totally doable - if the husband and I just schedule it right for peak tulip color. Think of all the floral photo opportunities!

4. Hawaii. Not exactly North America, perhaps, since it's way out there in the Pacific. And I am a little concerned about the Burn Factor. But maybe the heat/sun wouldn't be so unbearable if it was a winter trip? I'm sure they have lots of lovely gardens to see out there!

5. San Francisco & Vancouver. Cities on the Pacific that I've never visited.

6. Philadelphia. My family went on a road trip that included Pennsylvania when I was in middle school - but the stops we made were only for Pittsburgh (to see a friend), Hershey Park, and Gettysburg. We missed Philly!

7. Stratford, Ontario. I have been several times to this little town with a Shakespearean-inspired theater, on field trips in high school. But high school was ten years ago, and some day I would like to return to see another play.

INTERNATIONALLY:

1. The U.K. & Ireland. I've covered the Mediterranean pretty well, but haven't been to Northern Europe. I would love to visit England, Ireland, and Scotland - for the nature, the landscapes, the gardens, the castles, London, and yeah - perhaps a tour of Important Harry Potter sites, as well. :)

2. The Netherlands. For the same reason I always wanted to visit France and Ireland, I'd love to visit Amsterdam and check out it's art museums and art history.

3. Eastern Europe: Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Poland. Yes, I have already been to Switzerland - but it was only Zurich, and it was for only two days. My father's ancestors came from a little German-speaking town in Switzerland many many generations ago, but it would be kind of cool to go see it anyway, though I know nobody there. I bet there are also some lovely landscapes and castles and gardens around near the Alps. Similarly, I'd love to see Germany. I've only been to the Frankfurt airport; I'd love to explore Munich or Berlin. My uncle recently took a river cruise down the Rhine and his photos looked really beautiful. I know Germany has some great forests and castles and charming towns. And while I'm in the area, might as well check out Vienna, Austria, or maybe Budapest, Hungary... All the non-Mediterranean cities I haven't visited yet.

4. Sweden, Finland, Norway. Some sort of Fjord cruise would be really beautiful I bet. I know next to nothing about these countries and what there is to do for a tourist, but if I cross off England, Scotland, Ireland, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Poland... somewhere in these three Scandinavian countries would probably be next on my list.

5. Spain. I have been to Barcelona, it's true. But Spain's a pretty big country, with other big cities to explore and plenty of interesting art history.

6. Russia, Turkey, Morocco. I've considered these places before, but don't know if I'll ever actually make it there. I'd love to see some of the major cities, like St. Petersburg, Moscow, Istanbul, Marakesh - the places I always see on TV, with the awesome architecture and colorful marketplaces. But I'm also a little wary to travel to places that aren't exactly the most politically stable/safe and friendly toward American tourists, especially when said American tourists known very little about the countries. Maybe if I did enough research and looked into exactly what I would like to see (and the best ways to do so), I could make one of those trips work out some day.

I realize all/most of these are in Europe... And I am not against traveling to Asia or Africa or South America some day. I just know so little about the world outside of North America/Europe that I haven't learned anything that has really sparked my interest to want to travel there yet. It's Western bias, I know; but I spent semesters upon semesters being fed anecdotes and histories and slides of artwork from the Western world and getting excited about all there was to see. I find that I get the most out of a trip if I know something of it's history; if I know what I'm looking at. And even if I were to find a way to easily/safely explore Asia or Africa or South America (i.e. with a local guide, or at least someone who spoke the language and/or knew the area and what things I should be looking out for), I still wouldn't really understand what I was looking at.

And also I am super pale and burn easily, so the closer something gets to the equator, the more I'm Not Sure if I actually want to travel there. Southern Italy and Greece were already bad enough for my poor skin... ;)

Getty Center Gardens

As part of the 2012 road trip I posted photos from earlier this week, my friends and I also stopped in Los Angeles to see the X-games, visit my husband's aunt, and generally check out the area.

One day, I dragged my husband and one of my friends to the Getty Center to look at artwork (none of the friends who joined us on the trip were really art-lovers, but they humored me). What I didn't realize was that behind the Getty Center was also a beautiful garden. I had already taken so many pictures earlier in the day that my camera battery died before I got to take too many photos of the gardens, but I did manage to snap a few good ones.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the Getty Center gardens:

As with many of my floral photographs, I use these as inspiration for colored pencil drawings and paintings.

Western U.S. Road Trip, Continued

In a continuation of yesterday's post, today I will show some photographs from Zion National Park in Utah, as well as a few other photos from the road trip "Out West" that my husband and I took with three friends in 2012.

The Zion National Park has several lovely areas and hiking trails to explore - so naturally I took a bunch of pictures. Here are some of my favorites:

Here is a photo of what much of the landscape we drove through looked like. Amazing how much "nothingness" there is Out West, and how red the dirt is. So different from south-east Michigan back home!

Toward the end of our road trip, we swung by Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota. Our timing was perfect so that we visited the great stone carving/tourist trap right on July 4th, Independence Day.

Western U.S. Road Trip

Here are some of my favorite photos from the "Out West" part of our Western U.S. road trip in 2012. My husband and I joined three friends on a drive from Michigan to Oklahoma City, through Arizona and Utah to see the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park, to L.A. for the X-Games, through the Rockies and Colorado, up to South Dakota to see Mt. Rushmore, up through Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and then back across the Mackniac Bridge home to Metro-Detroit.

Some of the parts of this trip have already been posted to this blog - namely, the photos I took of the U.P. and northern L.P., in Michigan, as well as photos of beaches in California.

Today the focus is OKC & the Grand Canyon.

Our first stop on the road trip was Oklahoma City, to visit a friend. The downtown area is really beautiful, with a canal running through. We walked around a bit and I took some pictures:

And what trip "Out West" would be complete without a stop to the most famous naturally formed canyon?

The Grand Canyon in Arizona was... much grander than I realized. For some reason, I had always pictured it as the canyons in Road Runner cartoons, where the whole canyon/most of the canyon can be seen at once, from above. I was not picturing something that was too large to be captured in a single photograph; a winding canyon that stretched farther than I could see in either direction.

I'm not sure if I will ever use these as inspiration for future artwork, but anything is possible! I love "collecting" photographs anyway, just in case.

I'll show the rest of the "Out West" photos in a post tomorrow.

Cloud Atlas Sextet - Abstract Acrylic Series

As I teased yesterday, I decided to give my recent series of six acrylic paintings names inspired by David Mitchell's novel "Cloud Atlas," one of my favorite books.

It's hard to describe what the book is about, because it's about so many things. It's not even a single genre; it is six interconnected stories, told in ring composition, that span time, space, and genre.

--

[Warning: Mild Spoilers ahead.]

There is Adam Ewing, the San Franciscan notary who travels to the Pacific Islands in the 1870s on job assignment from his father-in-law, whose eye-witness accounts of racism, missionary work, ship travel, and unexpected friendships are told through his diary pages...

Which are discovered decades later by Robert Frobisher, a young, bisexual, probably-bipolar, musical genius/college drop-out in 1920s England/Belgium, whose experience working as an amanuensis for an aging composer is told through letters written to his friend Sixsmith...

Which are read decades later by Luisa Rey, a journalist desperate to uncover the truth about the dangerous corruption of power companies in 1970s California, whose story is told as a manuscript for a detective novel...

Which was submitted for publication decades later to one Timothy Cavendish, an elderly publisher who is coerced into imprisonment in an old folks' home in contemporary England and who later spins his tale of woe into his own manuscript-turned-Hollywood-Blockbuster...

Which is watched decades later by Sonmi, a clone-waitress shoved into a revolution by Unionists eager to expose the flaws of the current government in the futuristic city of Neo-Seoul, whose account is recorded by an Archivist...

Which is used as a sacred text for the dawn of a new religion in a post-apocalyptic Cannibal-infested dystopian Pacific Island future inhabited by one adolescent Zachry and a visiting woman from another tribe.

--

Though each section is its own story, they are also clearly tied together, with some characters (Sixsmith in particular) popping up in more than one chapter (Frobisher's and Luisa Rey's chapters, in the case of Sixsmith).

It's a brilliant (though sometimes confusing) piece of literature, and I highly recommend taking the time to read it. And, if you enjoy it - David Mitchell has several other books he's written that also tie into each other, and into Cloud Atlas. The same characters and themes keep recurring; by now he has created a veritable "David Mitchell Universe." (I'm actually in the process of reading through all of his novels in chronological order (by publishing date); when I'm finished, I intend to write a blog post about this comprehensive universe and some of my favorite ideas/quotes from his oeuvre.)

If you don't have time to read the book, however, Cloud Atlas is also a pretty great movie (starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Sturgess, Hugh Grant, and others). I actually saw the movie first; which I think helped my understanding of the book, even though there are some clear differences between the two.

--

In any case, because I enjoy Cloud Atlas so much and reread it for the third time recently, it's themes and characters were on my mind as I worked on these six paintings. The imagery of the paintings, of course, has little to do directly with the subject of Cloud Atlas; my paintings are based on photographs taken of flowers, which I manipulated/flattened in Photoshop, added patterns to, and traced and painted on acrylic paper. But there are six of them, just as there are six stories in Cloud Atlas, and in trying to figure out what to title my paintings, I started wondering which paintings might relate best to which Cloud Atlas chapters.

Here are the six finished acrylic paintings:

(These paintings are available for purchase through my Etsy store, here.)


--

Let's go one by one through these paintings and their titles.

First, "The Eyes of Friends," inspired by the chapters featuring Adam Ewing. (This painting is available for purchase here.)

I rather thought some of the impatiens looked like they "eyes" in the blue spots of their centers, and so was drawn to Adam Ewing for the naming of this painting. Impatiens represent "motherly love" - and though there are no mothers among Ewing's all-male shipmates, he does find out which friends he can trust to take care of him when he falls violently ill.

Some great quotes from the two Adam Ewing chapters:

“I seen too much o' the world, I ain't good slave.”

“Pain is strong, aye - but friends' eyes more strong.”

“That's what all beliefs turn to one day. Rats' nests & rubble.”

“Wolves don't sit in their caves, concocting crapulous theories of race to justify devouring a flock of sheep! ...True 'intellectual courage' is to dispense with these fig leafs & admit all people are predatory.”

“No state of tyranny reigns forever.”

“Torturous advances won over generations can be lost by a single stroke of a myopic president's pen or a vainglorious general's sword.”

“...only as you gasp your dying breath shall you understand, your life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean! Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?”

--

Next is "A Spent Firework," inspired by the chapters featuring Robert Frobisher. (This painting is available for purchase here.)

This one was a no-brainer. This sunflower painting is the only one in this series of six that features only one flower (instead of several); that symbolism coupled with its general shape and flamboyant vibrancy led me to Frobisher's story for title inspiration. It literally looks like a firework.

Some great quotes from the two Robert Frobisher chapters:

“A half-read book is a half-finished love affair.” 

“Fear can clear the mind as well as cloud it.” 

“How vulgar, this hankering after immortality, how vain, how false. Composers are merely scribblers of cave paintings. One writes music because winter is eternal and because, if one didn't, the wolves and blizzards would be at one's throat all the sooner.” 

“Cowardice is nothing to do with it - suicide takes considerable courage. Japanese have the right idea. No, what's selfish is to demand another to endure an intolerable existence, just to spare families, friends, and enemies a bit of soul-searching.” 

“...now I'm a spent firework; but at least I've been a firework.” 

“Another war is always coming...They are never properly extinguished. What sparks wars? The will to power, the backbone of human nature. The threat of violence, the fear of violence, or actual violence is the instrument of this dreadful will.” 

“...reworking my 'sextet for overlapping soloists': piano, clarinet, 'cello, flute, oboe, and violin, each in its own language of key, scale, and color.” 

“Composers draw inspiration from their environments.” 

“Boundaries between noise and sound are conventions, I se enow. All boundaries are conventions, national ones too. One may transcend any convention, if only one can first conceive of doing so."

“Writing is such a damn lonely sickness.” 

“The healthy can't understand the emptied, the broken.” 

“Rome'll decline and fall again.”

“We do not stay dead long.” 

--

Next is "An Infinite Matryoshka Doll," inspired by the chapters featuring Luisa Rey. (This painting is available for purchase here.)

The phlox plant, which keeps its blossoms tightly compacted and close to its stem, indeed reminded me of a Russian matryoshka doll with its repeating instances of the same (but slightly different) flower. In addition, this being based on a photograph taken in Florence, got me thinking about cycles of art history. The Florentine "Renaissance," though named for a "rebirth," harkened back to the Classical styles of the past.

Some great quotes from the two Luisa Rey chapters:

“Anything is true if enough people believe it is.” 

“The media... is where democracies conduct their civil wars.” 

“It's a wise soul who can distinguish traps from opportunities.” 

“One model of time: an infinite matryoshka doll of painted moments, each 'shell' (the present) encased inside a nest of 'shells' (previous presents)...” 

“Power, time, gravity, love. The forces that really kick ass are all invisible.” 

“What if trying to avoid the future is what triggers it all?” 

“It's a small world. It keeps recrossing itself.” 

“Truth doesn't care who discovers it.” 

--

Next is "Toppling Dominoes," inspired by the chapters featuring Timothy Cavendish. (This painting is available for purchase here.)

This painting is the one with the fewest moments of yellow. The majority of the piece is in the blue midtone range, and the little shots of yellow and splotches of the dark background pop forward, looking almost like cascading or tumbling items caught in a blue river. The little black points that congregate at the center of each coneflower similarly remind me of the pips on dominoes. Furthermore, coneflowers symbolize strength and healing - and through the course of his chapters, Cavendish finds himself incarcerated with nurses attempting to tend to his sickness of old age, desperate to find the strength/cunning within him to escape.

Some great quotes from the two Timothy Cavendish chapters:

“We cross, crisscross, and recross our old tracks like figure skaters.” 

“Conduct your life in such a way that, when your train breaks down in the eve of your years, you have a warm, dry car driven by a loved one - or a hired one, it matters not - to take you home.” 

“You will not apply for membership, but the tribe of the elderly will claim you.” 

“I recall a yesterday and see a tomorrow. Time, no arrow, no boomerang, but a concertina.” 

“Books don't offer real escape, but they can stop a mind scratching itself raw.” 

“Once any tyranny becomes accepted as ordinary...its victory is assured.” 

“...plan was a high-risk sequence of toppling dominoes.” 

“What wouldn't I give now for a never-changing map of the ever-constant ineffable? To possess, as it were, an atlas of clouds.” 

--

Next is "Truths & Mistruths," inspired by the chapters featuring Sonmi. (This painting is available for purchase here.)

This is one of the more abstract paintings in this series (tied, I think, with "Toppling Dominoes," above). It is so chaotic that if one did not know it was based on a photograph of snapdragons growing on their stalks, one might think it was something else altogether - something not even floral. Sonmi's chapters are similarly chaotic - there is much talk of "truth" and what really is or isn't real. Her answers to the Archivist's questions alternatively resemble a box of puzzle pieces and a completed Jigsaw puzzle.

Some great quotes from the two Sonmi chapters:

“Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.”

“Truth is singular. Its 'versions' are mistruths.” 

“You must create Catechisms of your own.” 

“Most of science's holy grails are discovered by accident, in unexpected places.” 

“One's environment is a key to one's identity.” 

“Travel far enough, you meet yourself.” 

“Fantasy. Lunacy. All revolutions are, until they happen, then they are historical inevitabilities.” 

“No crisis is insuperable if people cooperate.” 

“...ignorance of the Other engenders fear; fear engenders hatred; hatred engenders violence; violence engenders further violence until the only 'rights,' the only law, are whatever is willed by the most powerful.” 

“No matter how many of us you kill, you will never kill your successor.” 

--

Finally, "This Busted World," inspired by the chapter featuring Zachry. (This painting is available for purchase here.)

Though Zachry lives in a post-apocalyptic dystopian world, there is still hope for the future - a rebirth, a reawakening, a "rising from the ashes." In the language of flower symbolism, Black-Eyed Susans represent encouragement. I love the way the yellow petals rise out from the black and blue background in this painting; as well as the symbolism of their being taken from a photograph of landscaping along the Riverwalk in Detroit, Michigan - a city who has seen hard times lately, but whose city motto is 'We Hope For Better Things; It Shall Rise From the Ashes.'

Some great quotes from the one (long) Zachry chapter:

“Times are you're weak 'gainst the world! Times are you can't do nothin'! That ain't your fault, it's this busted world's fault is all!” 

“...the gone-lifes outnumber the now-lifes like leafs outnumber trees.” 

“The learnin' mind is the livin' mind... an' any sort o' Smart is truesome Smart, old Smart or new, high Smart or low.” 

“So many feelin's I'd got I din't have room 'nuff for 'em. Oh, bein' young ain't easy 'cos ev'rythin' you're puzzlin'n'anxin' you're puzzlin'n'anxin' it for the first time.” 

“We Old Uns was sick with Smart an' the Fall was our cure.” 

“There ain't no journey what don't change you some.” 

“In our busted world the right thing ain't always possible.” 

“Souls cross the skies o' time...like clouds crossin' skies o' the world.” 

Snapdragon Acrylic Painting

Yesterday's post showed the step-by-step pictures of creating my penultimate acrylic painting in my recent "Cloud Atlas Sextet" series; today, I will finish with the step-by-step pictures of the final painting.

Each is 8x10" in size and they are now all up on my Etsy page, available for purchase!

This painting is "Truths & Mistruths," which features abstract snapdragons (or foxglove? Something like that). As with the rest of this series, I used Liquitex Pro acrylic paint on Strathmore acrylic paper.

(Once again, I don't know why my phone camera captured little yellowish shadow lines for some of these pictures. I suspect it is because of the flickering fluorescent lighting I have in my studio room in the basement, but I don't know how to fix it so that my camera doesn't have this issue.)

This painting is for sale on Etsy here.

I started with a yellow-orange layer:

Then I added blue acrylic paint for the midtones:

Next, I added a bit of purple into the background, following the pencil tracing of the pattern I decided to include:

Finally, I filled in the background with a near-black (with just a hint of red/purple):

Here is the finished painting:

This painting is for sale on Etsy here.

Tomorrow's blog post will go into my detail about the inspirations for the names of these paintings, and how they relate to David Mitchell's novel "Cloud Atlas" (one of my favorite books).