A STATE OF TRANQUIL MINING

“… Dorothy was astonished to see tears flowing from her violet eyes and trickling down her lovely rose-hued cheeks. That the dainty maiden {Polychrome, the daughter of the rainbow} should dance and weep at the same time was indeed surprising; so Dorothy asked in a soft, sympathetic voice: “Are you unhappy, little girl?” “Very!” was the reply; “I’m lost.” “Why, so are we,” said Dorothy, smiling; “but we don’t cry about it.” “Don’t you? Why not?” “‘Cause I’ve been lost before, and always got found again,” answered Dorothy, simply.” L. Frank Baum, The Road to OZ, p.61-62, 1909 Books of Wonder, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY ---------- A STATE OF TRANQUIL MINING is part of my ongoing photo project: On my Way to OZ — Contemplations of a Lady Traveller. Photos were taken 2015 and 2016 in California, Florida, New Mexico, Oregon and Texas, during my stay abroad in the United States. Inspired by L. Frank Baum’s fictional land of OZ (1), I play with the idea of a powerless sorceress, which travels through North America to find sanctuary in nature’s enchanted wilderness. She is wandering around, discovering rugged landscapes where magic unfolds in its natural way. - OZ - In 1900 L. Frank Baum created a magical country, the Land of OZ(1), which is described in his children’s novel “The Wonderful Wizard of OZ” and its thirteen sequels. In this book series young readers are invited to discover a hidden fairyland cut off from the rest of the world by a natural barrier, known as the Deadly Desert. Baum characterized OZ as a real place, an alternative dimension, invisible to the human eye. Ruled by female sorceresses and good witches, OZ could be seen as a kind of a feminist utopia. In all aspects, geographical and sociological, OZ should be seen in relation to the United States. (2) “All the magic isn’t in fairyland,” he [the Shaggy Man] said gravely. “There’s lots of magic in all Nature, and you may see it as well in the United States, where you [Betsy] and I once lived, as you can here.” ---------- L. Frank Baum, Tik Tok of OZ, 1914, p.161; Books of Wonder, Harper Collins Publishers, New York, NY (1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_of_Oz (2) “Schematically, Oz is much like the United States, with the Emerald City taking the place of Chicago: to the East, mixed forest and farmland; to the West, treeless plains and fields of wheat; to the South, warmth and lush growth, and red earth.”