The journey from Prineville, Oregon to Lewiston, Idaho and back
was an awesome adventure. My friend Nadine Cobb, who lays claim to the “zen of
driving”, drove the entire distance, around 700 miles. What a gift that was! It
allowed me to soak in the incredible, majestic, monumental, and totally spectacular landscape.
Witnessing the mighty Columbia River beneath rock formations
gouged by an ancient glacier thrusts one back through eons of time. On the
other hand, the amazing sculpture of windmills harvesting the wind that whistles
through the Columbia Gorge pulls one forward into the future. Feeling stretched
between these two expanses of temporal reality, Nadine pushed onward toward the
Southeastern Washington and Northeastern Oregon border. Witnessing the ethereal
beauty in front of us, I fell in love with the Blue Mountains.
Long Distance Brides
Vilas Tonape, Associate Director of the Center for Arts and
History was the first to greet us in Lewiston. He shared photographs of his resplendent
new bride, thousands of miles away in Mumbai, India. After leaving India nearly
twenty years ago, he recently became a US citizen and his brave new wife will soon
join him.
Friday evening June 14, at the
Pilgrimage show reception, I
had the privilege of meeting some amazing people: a beautiful young woman
waiting and hoping for a kidney and pancreas transplant, her courageous and
supportive mother, a former teacher who had taught in Shanghai at a school
attended by future prime ministers of China and Taiwan, a quilt maker whose
second time through
The Artist’s Way
has allowed her to say she is an artist, a versatile artist on the cusp of a
career in book illustration, as well as a woman actively engaged in remaking
downtown Lewiston.
As I made my way through the gallery, answering questions
and sharing stories related to the Pilgrimage paintings, one of Lewiston’s senior
citizens arrived. This petite 80-pound woman's perceptive comments and questions drew me immediately to her, but it was when we reached the Mexico painting, “Half
Yet to Live”, that our bonding deepened.
I shared the experience behind my title and she said,
“That’s not chronological, is it?”
“Oh no,” I said. “It can happen at any time. Have you had
such an experience?”
“Yes. When I was 37 years old, living in Elkhart, Indiana, I
became engaged to a widower from Idaho. He had two sons he had been raising alone since his wife died three
years earlier. I had worked hard at jobs all of my life and he said he didn’t
want me to work any more. He wanted me to be at home to help him raise the
boys.
“He told his sons we were going to get married and brought
the boys to meet me. They were eight and ten years old. The eight-year-old sat
on a couch beside me and kept glancing at me. He got up from the couch and
paced in front of me. Finally, he looked me directly in the face and asked, ‘Do
you have any money?’
“I didn’t know what to say. I looked over at my fiancé and
he covered his face with his hands. I turned to the boy and said, ‘No, I don’t
have money.’
“The boy paced a bit more. When he sat back down on the
couch, he said, ‘Well, I guess we have enough chores that you’ll be able to
earn your keep.’ “
The two of us roared with laughter and her blue eyes sparkled.
I realized that for three years the widower must have been telling his sons
they had to do their chores in order to earn their keep. Now, as he courted his
future wife, his saying had come home to roost.
Hearing our laughter, others came to join us, but not before
storyteller Leila Lockhart whispered, “Later we became playmates when he
discovered that I could climb trees.”
Creating Community
When Nadine and I decided to travel to Lewiston for the
opening of my Pilgrimage exhibition at the Center for Arts and Culture at
Lewis-Clark State College, I had no idea of what to expect. Our arrival in Lewiston launched us
into an amazing opportunity to witness the transformation that is taking place
in small inland communities.
After checking into our hotel in Lewiston, we went for a
walk. We discovered a newly opened library behind the Center for Arts and
History, along with recently installed highly colorful public art that served
as bike racks and seating. Across the street and in front of the art museum was
another newly renovated building called the Towne Square with eateries, offices,
spaces for musical events, and upper storey apartments.
Next morning we walked on the “green belt”, a newly
constructed walking and bike trail along the waterfront of the Snake and
Clearwater Rivers.
Not only did we
have tremendous views of water and hillsides, metal exercise equipment located
along the trail was available for us to stretch our muscles.
By the time we met Cathy Martin at the Pilgrimage reception,
we had already picked up clues about Beautiful Downtown Lewiston initiatives.
Using federal funding, the town is clearly remaking itself. Located in a banana
belt, I suspect it will become a destination for retirees.
Leaving Lewiston early Saturday morning, we made our way
thirty-some miles north to Moscow, Idaho. Here young people with college
educations have decided to raise their families and are into creating a
kid-friendly downtown, evident in a child focus at the bookstore, art classes
for the young, cartoons at the cinema, and baby strollers throughout the
popular Farmers Market. With vim
and vigor, these young families are reinventing the old Western tale of “making
a town”.
After breakfast at the Bloom independent art house and café
and a quick visit to Pritchard Art Gallery, we began our return journey west.
With no deadlines to meet, we decided to stop and meander around Walla Walla,
Washington before crossing into Oregon.
Driving toward Lewiston we had seen many of the carefully
tended vineyards that have made Walla Walla a destination for wine enthusiasts.
In downtown Walla Walla we could see the financial impact of those enthusiasts.
There were wine-tasting shops galore. The historic hotel where Nadine was hosted
as a rodeo queen years before had been renovated in an elegant European style. Strolling
down gentrified streets, we ogled at the cool clothes in Studio Opal. With
patterned leggings, dainty lace tops, a zillion sunhats from China, and striped
all around long dresses, it was definitely for the younger set.
Saturday afternoon we crossed into northeastern Oregon.
Nadine had graduated from Hermiston High School, so we lunched and bought gas
in Hermiston. Having left Idaho and Washington behind, it was clear that wealth
from wheat farms, vineyards, and inland ports had not made it into this part of
Oregon. But the landscape all the way to Madras, Prineville and Bend,
punctuated by snow-covered peaks from the Cascade Mountains, continued to be
breathtaking.
Singing Bird B and B
Going to and from Lewiston, I had the delight of staying two nights in Nadine's home, a bed and breakfast in Prineville, Oregon that is perfect for the genteel nature lover.
Every corner holds an art treasure, from kitchen to bath to laundry room to entry and bedrooms. And Nadine is qualified to lead hikes, horseback rides, and guided tours of the stupendous landscape as well as gallery walks in nearby towns.
Try it. I bet you'll like it.
ncobb@coinet.com
Collage
Art Images: Karen Bandy, Richard Boyer, Brenda Reid Irwin, Alison Meyer, Susana
Santos, Craig Zuger.
Photos:
Vineyards from Google Images, rest by LiDoña Wagner
