Mimi Allen—most commonly known as the Poetess of Green Lake, for a project she did a few years ago—has begun her journey to prostrate herself, in the manner of the Buddhist monks in Tibet, all the way around the base of Mount Rainier. It's another in a long history of artists forming intense relationships with the mountain, both as an image and as an experience. I don't know of another artist who has circumnavigated its circumference. I am tempted to go and join her—anyone is welcome to hike in to her and prostrate themselves for a while along her route.

It will take, she estimates, about three months. She raised money on Kickstarter from supporters, some of whom paid for the privilege of having their own mantra chanted for one whole day—and splitting the karma with Allen. The details are all here.

Meanwhile in the city, Seattle Art Museum is about to open two landscape exhibitions: Beauty & Bounty: American Art in an Age of Exploration (19th and early-20th century American artists' response to the land, including Bierstadt's painting of Puget Sound before he ever saw it) and Reclaimed: Nature and Place Through Contemporary Eyes, an analogue of the earlier show but with new art.