Scotland in Five Views

Sometimes you take the trip and sometimes the trip takes you.

Though unspoken (there were no philosophers in my family), I was raised to believe that travel is important. Whether a backcountry hike or an oversees destination requiring unusual vaccinations and special visa, a trip takes you away from your daily routine, away from the grind and into a place where you are a little (or a lot) off-kilter, the outsider looking with fresh eyes. I am not merely enriched by experiencing another culture or testing my limitations. The journey refills the mental cup.

As an artist, I’ve always looked at travel like this. Every vacation is a working vacation since I can’t not be an artist and the journey is feeding that monster. Long quiet time, the long drive or ride, sitting at a café watching the world move around me is time spent in my head working out imagery and playing with words. Opening my eyes is scoping for the artistic image.

But I try to also sometimes be the tourist – the pretty sort, not the ugly American – and just look and listen and even enjoy the goofy fun. I would like to say I was resolved on a recent trip to Scotland to shift into tourist mode. but I was traveling with family, so the art forming in my own head was often on hold and I needed to shift into artist mode, grabbing bits of artistic vision where I could find it. Fortunately, I did cover a lot of territory and there was no lack of rich imagery to inspire. I don’t have a huge exotic travelogue this time, but here are five of my favorites…