When Mr C and I first thought about coming on this trip to Israel, I had in mind that I would do a series of pieces based on the trip. I will have the opportunity to mount a show of this work at Trinity Cathedral in Portland. What is so interesting to me is that I had a vision of what the color palette would be before I arrived here. If you have looked at any of my photos from the trip, you can see that the color scheme is very neutral — gray, beige and golden tones.

I have been paying attention to words and metaphors as we visit various sites. For instance, pomegranates grow profusely in the Galilee area and are featured in antique carvings. Almost every where you travel in this amazing country, you are faced with the facts of past and present strife. I am thinking of representing this with red for the blood shed. Anyway, I am intentionally thinking about ways to present this experience in my fabric art.

Today, we drove from Galilee to Jerusalem through the West Bank, stopping for lunch in Jericho. We went through several check points as we went from Israeli control to Palestine control and so on. It was quite striking to see the difference in the Israeli controlled Galilee to the West Bank, which is Palestinian. The roads are less cared for, there is a lot of trash along the way, the homes are often made up of whatever can be tacked together and the farms do not have the polished look of the kibbutz farms. I will post some photos from today, later when I have some time.

I thought I would post some photos about our trip yesterday. You can see all of the photos on my Flickr site. Our first stop was the ruins of Sepphoris, famous for its splendid 3rd century mosaics. This particular face was very compelling:

We also visited Nazareth which is inhabited by Muslims and Christians — very few Jews live there. We had lunch near the well where Mary, the mother of Jesus, would have gotten her daily water supply, thus it is now named Mary’s fountain. We visited a recreated typical Nazarene home and farm. It is on a site that had been excavated and had some of the necessary parts of a family farm, such as a wine press made from a rocky area. Our guide was the lead archaeologist on the dig. There were the cutest kids dressed in costume hanging out for our entertainment.

I take many of my photos from the bus as we travel around the country. I love taking photos of doors, windows and interesting buildings.

Notice the high tops on this Palestinian girl.

I also love to photograph the architecture. Much of the housing is on hillsides and vertical. This is to save the flat land for agriculture

Tomorrow we are off to Bethlehem. When we arrived in Jerusalem this afternoon, we drove up to the Mt. of Olives to get an overview of Jerusalem — wow, what a sight.