northwest’s child

There’s a thing I’d like to tease out into the light.  It is the nature of a childhood spent in the Pacific Northwest. Not completely certain why, YET, but there is a piece of it here:

http://player.vimeo.com/video/6981507 (Click link to see this.  These Vimeo videos are resisting embedding for some reason.  It is excellent.)

Kolo from Natacha Paganelli on Vimeo.

and here:

http://player.vimeo.com/video/3108686 (again click to see the video)

When I Grow Up from Fever Ray on Vimeo.

I am not pointing to specifics, this is purely gut reaction; the viscera is where you understand what it is to be a child of the northwest.  It is a childhood defined by an undercurrent of a brooding presence, at times menacing, but always creative.  A slow-driving, get-your-project-done force.   Much of this comes from the sheer power and presence of the natural.  The constant quieting grey, massive mountains, dark dancing trees, violent storms, and the ever present, shifting waters.

There is also an element that is unabashedly mystical.   This grey tilt here in the northwest allows for the other to be present, to come closer to the veil between worlds.  It is exactly why both Twin Peaks and Twilight could only be set here.

Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks

Put whatever opinion of these two pieces of fiction you hold aside for the moment, they share a debt; both owe their success to the atmosphere of this region.

Twilight

When it comes to it, I delight in finding hints of this northwest feeling in pop culture.  I felt something of it in the art direction of the movie versions of both Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:  Part I and Where the Wild Things Are .

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Where the Wild Things Are

Where the Wild Things Are

Where the Wild Things Are

Likely, much of what I am chasing here is simply the common experience of being a child.    My childhood being northwestern I surely can not with confidence claim to locate the line between childhood and the influence of this environment.  The best of childhood for me were the stretches of time, sometimes alone, sometimes with friends, absorbed in some invented  game of private wonder and a logic that made such practical sense within the game; all explanation dissolved when taken out of it (I see this very much reflected in the styling of the Fever Ray video above).

In the northwest, childhood creativity is informed by natural surroundings and a sense of awe.  It is a place to find who you are as an individual; delve into what you brought to the table from day one.  There is the brooding, there is some winter blues to endure, and yet there is the drive to create; with it a deep, sustained personal fulfillment.

Others who I suspect know the influence of the northwest force:

My kids.

The Wilson Sisters.

The artists of the Northwest School (including the ones who rebelled at the label.)

Guy Anderson, “Rebirth,” 1972, oil on paper

Nirvana [as well as the original author (unknown) of this song].