| Portland Chapter 31 Aug and Sept of 88 I had everything in storage in Reno after moving out of my apartment on Berrum Place just south of Virginia Lake. The rest of my possessions were in my '77 hatchback, a hatchback exactly the same as my '80 hatchback that got totaled with me in it. I camped in a campground in the Sierra Nevadas, East of Nevada City. There was a lake there that was drying up and provided inspiration for a prehistoric painting or two, a place for Dinosaurs and such. I went on to Chico. After that, I drove North through Redding and headed up into the mountains at the northern end of California. My car loaded as it was just barely made it. My first objective was an exploration of Ashland, Oregon. Which had become renown as party town with artisans. I took polaroids of the place and visited all the art galeries and that night I walked and drove up and down the main drag and listened to the drunken bars all over the place. The nearby campground was full, so I drove North, until I found a rest stop, where I slept and the next morning, the scenery I began to see was really fantastic. One place I was so impressed with the splender that I didn't notice until I was in the middle of it, all the non-tree vegetation was poison oak. Later, I drove West toward Coos Bay and stopped at a rest stop where I took a picture that I made a painting out of later. It came a cloud burst all of a sudden, and it was very invigorating. Then I came to the bridge over the place along the bank of the river that I made paintings of. A place where Impressionists and otherAvant Guarde would linger. I got to Coos Bay. I drove up and down the coast and took pictures, which I made paintings out of. All the campgrounds were full. I drove most of the night and slept in the car in a large motel's parking lot in Medford. I drove North until I was in Corvalis, which I explored, because as a student of Microbiology I knew that their specialty was Microbiology, but my desire to continue on and become a food microbiologist and invent a new, improved source of food was superceded by my desire to be a painter (because, as I had concluded at the time, solving the world's food-shortage problem would not solve the world's problem). I explored Portland. I rented a motel room for one week and drove around asking myself if I would like to live here and get started here as an artist. I really liked the area around Lake Oswego. I really liked Tryon State Park. and the Willamette and Columbia Rivers. I drove East along the Columbian River on the South side taking lots of pictures of the waterfalls, especially Multnoma. I went up to The Dals and headed North. Washington gave me an eery feeling. I explored Toppenish and Yakima at night. I found a campground near Mt. Ranier, and took pictures. When I left the campground instead of heading on to Mt. Olympus, in the northern coast area of Washington and then on to Yellowstone, I just headed back to Portland. I was driving past so much beautiful scenery without photgraphing it, painting it or even enjoying it. I had enough photographs for the rest of my life. Its easy to get lost and drive forever in Portland. I returned to Chico. |
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