Thursday Doors: Interplanetary Portal

I have had a photograph sitting in my archives for a few years, with vague plans to share it in some future Thursday Doors post. When I read that Dan Antion (No Facilities) had created a Writing Challenge based on door images, I figured this would be a good time.  

Writing Challenge, you ask? Yes – Dan, the keeper of all things Thursday Doors, came up with the brilliant idea of having door photographers provide inspiration for writers.  

I found this door about three years ago while on an artists’ studio tour in Southern California’s high desert, not too far from Joshua Tree National Park. It was on property owned by artist Snake Jagger, who often includes a door very much like this – standing slightly ajar, alone in the distance – in his whimsical surreal landscapes. I love that he built a three-dimensional door that looks just like the doors in his paintings. The structure is no deeper than a sheet of wood. The illusion of depth is created with perspective.   

Please join in!

If you want to participate as a photographer: create your own Thursday Doors post and share your images. Be sure to link to Dan’s post.

If you want to participate as a writer: plan to post your door-inspired writing on your blog anytime between now and May 29th. (I’d be thrilled if you used my door as inspiration but, if space aliens or portals to other worlds aren’t your thing and you’d like to select another door, there will be plenty of others to choose from.) Include a link to Dan’s site and attribute the door image to the photographer.

If you want to participate both as a photographer and a writer: get busy!

For more specific information about how to participate in the challenge, please read Dan’s original announcement.

Author: Janis @ RetirementallyChallenged.com

My blog is about travel, relationships, photography, and whatever else pops into my head (even, sometimes, issues surrounding retirement and aging).

105 thoughts on “Thursday Doors: Interplanetary Portal”

  2. That is so cool! Joanne and I were just having a discussion on perspective this very morning. Excellent use of it to fool the eye. Thanks for sharing, Janis!

    Deb

  4. Hi, Janis — Cool idea! For those who read more than write, just in case you don’t know about it — Seanan McGuire has started a YA series of novellas about kids finding odd doors, going through them to a world that suits them (but is dangerous), and then being shunted back to our world. The first one is called Every Heart A Doorway, though I liked the most recent (Across the Green Grass Fields) better.

        1. Dear Keith, if Jim Morrison, before he stepped out into eternity, did not make peace with Jesus Christ, then Mr. Morrison is in no condition to jet-set around.

  11. My husband has been friends with Snake since they were in their 20s in Palm Springs. We have a photo with Snake with the door as a background.

  12. That is wonderful! I’ve come across doors/portals in other sculpture gardens, but never anything like this. I wanted to walk through the door until I saw the alien peeking around the corner…

  15. I think it’s a pretty cool idea and executed perfectly. Reminds me of the full-sized painting of a door that an artist friend gave to our younger daughter and looked just like a door in the apartment. 🙂 What an excellent find and the little alien head peeking out is so funny. I’ve been in that area and there might be aliens but you’d never find them in that vast emptiness.

    janet

  18. This is very cool! Like many, I had to take a second look to find the alien’s face😂. What an interesting piece of art!

  22. The door colour is nice and that alien face behind it stirs imagination. Thanks, Janis, for sharing Snake Jagger’s art. #ThursdayDoors

  23. Wow, Janis, that is one funky and creepy door! 🙂 It’s all in the perspective, definitely. And this might be fun to write about, too.

      1. It is definitely the perfect door for this challenge. As to participating, not sure if time allows. I’m still working on my book, and we’ve just become empty nesters. Exciting, bittersweet, emotional. 🙂 And I’m not the fiction writer that you are, but who knows! Maybe I’ll give it a shot. Have a great weekend! 🥰

  24. Very cool door – and inspiring, too. But what I find most appealing is the fact of where you found it, and the fact that it is a ‘sculpture’.
    BTW: I remember your door photo posts being just as inspirational…just sayin’.
    🙂
    Have fun with writing a piece prompted by your door during the challenge.

  26. What a cool idea! I’m amazed at how many creative people there are out in the blogsphere, you included. I enjoyed looking at Dan’s blog and Snake Jagger’s art. Thanks!

    1. I agree. It never occurred to me when I started to blog seven years ago that it would connect me to so many interesting people. In fact, I would have never discovered Snake, or his amazing door if a fellow blogger, who has since become a good friend, hadn’t told me about him and the studio tour.

  30. I can see why you would save this photo, Janis. Such possibilities right down to the checkered floor. As I read further, I see how it is an illusion. Fun! I enjoy reading the “Doors” posts. Thank you for sharing!

  31. Better get busy, Janis! 🙂 I think you are the perfect person to use this door as inspiration for your next story of fiction. Or, non-fiction. 🙂 A wonderful, thought-provoking piece of art. Smart!

      1. Agreed!
        I watched a Jimmy Fallon hashtags segment last night. One person said, roughly: what if the meteorite that killed the dinosaurs was actually an UFO, and the aliens are us?

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  42. Cool image. It reminds me of a novel I read recently, “The Ten Thousand Doors of January” by Alix Harrow. The story is about portals into other worlds. I enjoyed it.

    Judith

  43. Hi – I really LOVE this door and the way you noted Jagger the artist includes these in his works.
    Also- it was nice to know that folks “sit on” a photo for a while – or should I say have them in the archives waiting for the ripe time.
    —
    And this one would make for a great story!
    Perhaps a time travel piece or something where a person could take an adventure by entering –
    🙂

    1. I have quite a few photos that I have taken months – or years – ago that I hope I can use eventually. I used “my” door as a basis for my short story, Just Passing Through (next post after this one). A couple others used the same image for their stories too, as part of Dan’s writing challenge, so I guess it spoke to them also. I love that this funny little door inspired creativity!

      1. well I like this door so much I might have used it if I had seen it in the options – but I also was in a hurry (trying to join in after a break from blogging left me a little short on time)
        anyhow, I look forward to reading the Just Passing Through post 🙂

          1. Oh wow – am I reading in reverse here / ??? I need to go and refresh on this one – lol
            But now it makes sense because when I left your blog I was so curious as to why you would be writing about a door for Dan in June and wondered if he made it a monthly challenge (which would be fine by me)
            I am logging off for night and will be back later
            Have a nice day

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