Patterns of Belonging

After college, before babies and smart phones, JD and I moved to Portland, Oregon, where I found a job as a representative for a small college textbook publisher. My Thomas Guide directed me to campuses all over Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, where I’d try to persuade professors to adopt our word processing, programming, and computer science books. Before the key was in the ignition of the company issue Ford Taurus, I’d memorize highway numbers, landmarks, and exit names. My mind superimposed the image of the map onto the road I covered and I found my way.

Cartography, the practice of making maps, is evidenced as far back as 25,000 BCE thanks to an unearthed mammoth tusk found in Pavlov, Czech Republic. Archaeologists suggest that the markings on the tusk could be a hunting map of the surrounding landscape showing river lines and details of slopes and foothills. Waterproof and sturdy, this artifact reminds us that we are long practiced at spatial reasoning.

George C Thomas - Thomas Bros. Maps 1953 San Francisco street guide page

After college, before babies and smart phones, JD and I moved to Portland, Oregon, where I found a job as a representative for a small college textbook publisher. My Thomas Guide directed me to campuses all over Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, where I’d try to persuade professors to adopt our word processing, programming, and computer science books. Before the key was in the ignition of the company issue Ford Taurus, I’d memorize highway numbers, landmarks, and exit names. My mind superimposed the image of the map onto the road I covered and I found my way.

Cartography, the practice of making maps, is evidenced as far back as 25,000 BCE thanks to an unearthed mammoth tusk found in Pavlov, Czech Republic. Archaeologists suggest that the markings on the tusk could be a hunting map of the surrounding landscape showing river lines and details of slopes and foothills. Waterproof and sturdy, this artifact reminds us that we are long practiced at spatial reasoning.

s, and microorganisms.

Yarrkalpa (Hunting Ground) by Kumpaya Girgirba, Yikartu Bumba, Kanu Nancy Taylor, Ngamaru Bidu, Janice Yuwali Nixon, Reena Rogers, Thelma Judson and Nola Ngalangka Taylor, Martumili Artists. Photograph: Jason McCarthy/National Museum of Australia

Capturing all this life felt mind bending until I remembered the aboriginal art of the Songlines, “...which are guides through the land as well as sources of advice on how to live in it…[They are] receptacles of ancient knowledge and narratives as well as being portals to real places. You can learn what happened there. Where there is water. Where there is danger. How to sustain life and how to sustain place.” (The Guardian. 2021)

My maps are a deep bow to the Songlines. They are a starting point instead of an historical reflection. I attempted to portray what is seen through the eyes and what appears in my dreams. An underground spring runs the length of the property, animal trails crisscross the grass, burial sites nestle under trees as altars of remembrance and cycles, birds ride invisible thermals, and the river sings, her voice echoing in the canyon.

Everything is connected. I am a small node in the network. I am connected to and in relationship with the patterns of where I live and the larger patterns of the forest, ocean, and beyond. I belong to the delicate balance and my existence is interdependent on countless beings and landscapes.

Front Yard with Nurse loge & Raven; C. Buress (2025)