A couple times a year Portland is covered with an intense lavender glow at dusk. It's partially due to the way the west hills block the sunset but allow the reflected light from the clouds. Sometimes it is so intense that all of the dogs, cats, birds and insects go silent. Its effects are not unlike a ganzfield only somewhat more intense because it silences many of the normal city sounds. It happened again today and it always reminds me of Mark Rothko, who grew up here. (read Arcy's historical account of Rothko's Portland years here).


Portland sky (no color enhancements), see larger image here.

For comparison here is a mature Rothko:


Mark Rothko, Red on Maroon 1959
Tate © 1998 by Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko

Now I'm not contending that Rothko was painting skyscapes but it is impossible to think that the father of experiential art would not have been sensitive to this intense effect of depthless yet infinitely deep color. I also discussed this effect in an early Rothko painting of Portland. Ive also suggested we could name the new Willamette Transit/Pedestrian bridge after Rothko, he is after all the city's most famous son (yet is under recognized).

Rothko's Orange and Purple painting at the SFMOMA was, for me, that "first" moment that most seem to have with a piece of art. I've gone back to his colors ever since.