I toured Europe as an eighteen year-old with a few friends from school as part of an EF Tour, and our it took us to thirteen countries all within a month. My own travels involved exploring a mine in Berchtesgaden, Germany. I have later in life wondered, could this mine have once hidden art treasures of the world? A recent film, The Monuments Men, propelled me back into this question and caused me to reminisce years later back to my visit to Berchtesgaden. And I was not the on

Photo Credit: MKulisch Photography I am defining “place” loosely. The coordinates are invisible to everyone but me, a place where the compass needle revolves in tentative circles because an internal North is harder to find. Right now, I’m situated in a world where I filter everything through the successes and failures of my daily task lists for both BACKWORDS Press and my other full-time gig. This isn’t a complaint. This is just what’s happening. I love what I’m doing. I’m so

What is place? Is it a mark on a map or a series of numbers and symbols that correspond to somewhere else? Is it located upon the topography of our bodies or in the geography of our minds, tucked into the folds of our imaginations like a diamond wedding ring sewn into the hem of a little girl’s pajamas? For me, to be a refugee and to be a person of the Vietnamese diaspora, the weight of these questions measures in silences and heartbeats not just in miles and distances. Recen

Recently, I began working at the Portland Art Museum. As a creative who has worked in ceramics, typography, social practice, and more, I am thrilled to be in the presence of renowned artwork every day. However, there has been one significant and unanticipated repercussion of my new job—it has made me extremely conscious of my footwear. I often pass through the public galleries in my daily errands, and I’ve noticed that my shoes can get very noisy. Besides my beloved Toms, mos

In late May of 2013, early on a Sunday morning, I slung a duffle full of clothes and my Lowepro bag—this filled with my Canon DSLR, a couple of lenses (primes), memory cards, and some extra batteries—over both shoulders and headed into the brisk foggy air of the South Waterfront neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. Together with a new model, Drew, we walked and talked our way down SW Moody, past Riverplace (many of its shops still closed), and over the Hawthorne Bridge toward SE

I came to farming through vegetable gardening. It was the exposure to the art of bouquet making, and the overall power that flowers have in creating a diversified and ecologically sound farm system, that drew me to become a flower grower. Our first year in production, Kara, co-owner and co-operator of Vibrant Valley Farm, got married and we decided to try flower farming ourselves. We grew all of the flowers she needed for her big day and had so many more that we were able to

“Omg! It’s been so long! How have you been?! Do you still live in NYC?” This is the worst text you can ever receive as a person trying to make it work in a city that demands you work two jobs, commute two hours a day and you still live with roommates at the age of 26. This text means “OMG! I haven’t talked to you in three years, but I remember you made a big deal about moving to NYC on Facebook and now I’m thinking of traveling. Can I crash at your place – eat your food – ann

I have been for a while interested in the architectural layout of spaces, and how those spaces dictate or facilitate our experiences and feelings. For example, Joan Meyers-Levy (University of Minnesota) and co-author Rui (Juliet) Zhu (University of British Columbia) published a consumer research paper in 2007 titled “The Influence of Ceiling Height: The Effect of Priming on the Type of Processing People Use” and found that “When a person is in a space with a 10-foot ceiling,

Recently I was in Kentucky for work and was lucky enough to have some leisure time. I drove to Memphis, a city I’ve only ever known because of my cousin’s love of Elvis Presley. I couldn’t wait to go to Graceland so I could feel what she must have felt for him. Instead, when I arrived in my blue suede shoes, what I got was a theme park. The house was built in 1939 and purchased by Elvis in 1957. Graceland was once a proud estate home that Presley had bought to care for his el