Coming into Portland Oregon Airport, Mount (Something), taken from the plane

Well, I was back yesterday and am only just now getting here to pots anything at all.  And it will be short.  I have a full day of loading out at ArtOMatic and working my shift there (about 12 hours in all). 

The trip was packed full and I have to say that the Columbia River Gorge in Washington state has to be some of the most beautiful territory I have ever seen in my life.  I wish my pictures were better, but you’ll just have to make do.  These are a few for your viewing pleasure.  I stayed at the Bonneville Hot springs resort and spa (with no time to enjoy any of that between workshops and sleeping – my circadian rhythm was way off beat).  Click over – they have some lovely pictures.  I saw Multnomah Falls on the way to the Resort – very cool!  And also one of the driftwood horses whose pictures keep winding up in my email inbox.  Public art alongside the highway – we could use some of that here in Maryland!

The art out there (included here are a few pieces around my hotel and the convention site) is fish based, salmon to be exact.  I guess every area has its icon(s).  I expected fabulous jewelry, but have to say that the jewelry artists we have right here in Southern Maryland rival anything I saw there. 

Reading left to right (and never knowing how these are going to stack up in the final publication):

Mountains from the airplane; flying into Salt Lake City from the airplane – see the other plane? (ok you have to click on it and enlarge to see the other plane); morning outside my hotel with the clouds all caught in the mountains and treetops – lots of that every morning.  Also lots of rain; clay wall sculpture based on local petroglyphs; clay abstract wall sculpture I thought was cool; the ubiquitous salmon in wood.

thought for the day:  Too often we forget to laugh, taking ourselves and life too seriously..  One friend of mine used to quip, "Don’t take life too seriously.  You’ll never get out of it alive."  With laughter comes the realization that all things come to pass., that life evolves through cycles of change.  We can enjoy these cycles or resist them.  But resistance brings us pain.  It is not the way of Tao….What do you do for play?  Diane Dreher, The Tao of Inner Peace