When I travel, I almost always take my Kehinde Wiley tote bag with me. This started on Kilimanjaro. I had a vague sense that it would be fun to have my picture taken with the tote at the summit. I wasn’t wrong. When we finally made it there, I took off my backpack and pulled out the tote bag. All of the mountain guides laughed as I slid the straps over my shoulder. “Shopping?,” they asked, chuckling.
I really love the picture my guide took.
A few weeks later I stood on the Spiral Jetty for the very first time in my life after dreaming of it and adoring it from afar for nearly 25 years. Back in the ’90s when I was an Art History undergrad, I’d learned about it. But back then the water level was much higher, so high that the jetty couldn’t be seen at all. Times change. So it happened that we were in town, and I convinced a few family members to help me find it. We drove miles and miles, first along highways and then down miles of gravel road. Eventually we found it. Mid-day sun beat down on us as we scampered over rocks and across the dried up shoreline of the Great Salt Lake.
My sister took this photo.
I’ve managed to take the tote to a few other places, too. It’s fun taking the arts everywhere.
