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Archive for the ‘Out and About in Portland’ Category

A Great Day

Saturday, November 3rd, 2007

Today was a stellar day for all sorts of reasons.

  • I slept in, getting ready for the end of daylight savings time.
  • It was a spectacularly gorgeous sunny fall day.
  • I made some great progress on the green quilt.
  • Mr C and I went on an art date.
  • Maggie and I took a nice late afternoon walk in the Rhodie Garden (probably our last one until spring).

Here is a sneak peak at the quilt I am doing for an invitational, curated by Larkin Van Horn. The theme is “It’s Good to be Green.” I have known for a year that I need to have this done my December 1. I was originally going to make a piece out of recycled green fabric — sort of a double entendre. Instead, I am making a composition from my indigo fabrics. One of the pieces I did was a green hand-dye. Also, the process of indigo requires the dye to be green before it turns blue with oxidation — so it is “good to be green.” Here is a sneak peak. This is a small section. The final piece has to measure 18″ X 45″.

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This afternoon, Mr C and I went to see the Chuck Close exhibit at the Portland Art Museum. I really enjoyed the show. I watched the film of how he does his painted works.

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Much of the show were prints of the portraits that he does. I loved seeing the plates and woodblocks displayed with the piece of art that they produced. I took a print making class once which makes it even more exciting to see his work. I particularly loved the portraits made from gradations of gray paper pulp.

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I could imagine how you could create these images using fabric.

I made a few purchases in the gift shop where they had lots of things with a Chuck Close grid.

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Sorry about the quality of this photo, but I took it after dark with a flash. I have cocktail napkins with a grid design, Chuck Close earrings and a cool ring with Chuck Close circles. I also got myself a Miro ’08 calendar.

Hope you all had a good day, too, and remembered to set your clocks back so you can get a well-deserved extra hour of sleep.

Exploring Portland

Friday, August 24th, 2007

Yesterday, Mark, Jayme and Mr C and I went exploring in Portland. First, we took the tram from down on the river up to OHSU. This was my first opportunity to take the high ride. It was lots of fun and we got on for free. As we were about to get our $4 tickets, someone with a Tram Escort badge asked us if we would like to be escorted and ride for free — duh! We were happy to take the ride with her.

Tram coming!

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Portland from the tram.

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Since Jayme will be applying for medical schools in another year, we were interested in taking a walk around this vertical campus. OHSU sits way up on pill hill in Portland. There was some interesting architecture.

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This is the tram structure.

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After we made it back down to the river, we headed over to the Pearl district to find the Tanner Springs Park. This is a 2 year old park that was created in the midst of high rises on what used to be wetlands, with a creek running through. Now the creek flows under the city through pipes, but is referenced in the park in small stream beds that end in a pool with koi swimming, happily.

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I just loved the rusty, wonky fence that was made from old railroad ties.

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Here M & J, hamming for my camera!

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We then walked up to Jamison Park, where many children were enjoying the water on a very warm afternoon.

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Then we went to this beautiful spot to check out the Farmer’s Market.

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Such beautiful stuff:

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Next on our adventures, was the 50% off sale at Patagonia. bought myself a fleece vest for the fall, with high hopes that it will fit by then!!

For those who enjoy my photography, you can see more of our day yesterday on this flickr set.

We had a lovely dinner out at Nostrana, but it is not WW friendly. I think it will be off my radar for a while.

Today, M & M are here. Right now they are soaking wet from helping Uncle Mark wash Jayme’s car. Tonight, we will have a family dinner. I love these times of gathering my loved ones close and enjoying their company.

Tomorrow, M & J will leave, and I will get back to work in my studio!! Lots of deadlines are looming.

The Museum of Contemporary Craft…

Sunday, July 22nd, 2007

…opened it’s doors today and I was the first person to walk in. Mr C and I left church around 11:30 am and drove the few blocks to the new location for the Craft PDX Block Party. I couldn’t get a good photo of the building because of all the tents which were housing artisans and craftsmen doing demonstrations. There were not many people around except for those setting up and volunteers.

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This is the closest I could get for a photo. The second photo is from the entrance.

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The building used to house Daisy Kingdom which sold fabric for over the top little girl’s dresses. They also had great sets of quilting fat quarters and fabric. On the upper level were interesting stuff for sale and beautiful silk and dressy fabric. It is a far cry from the old store, but the bones of the old building are still there.

We were able to have a quickie 15 minute tour of the current exhibit — Craft in America, which includes work from the PBS show of the same name. There were textile pieces by Judith Content, Tim Harding (love, love his work), Arturo Alonzo Sandoval, Wendy Huhn, Jack Lenor Larsen, Michael James, and others. The exhibit covered the gamut of crafts and was very nicely displayed. The show was mainly on the second floor.

The sales gallery is on the first level. It was jam-packed full of stuff. I didn’t recognize the names of any of the fiber artists. Mr C and I both noticed that there were not many northwest artists represented. I do know that when they closed the old museum, they had a new jurying process with a juror from outside the area. One friend, who has always been at the gallery and enjoyed good sales, was not juried in this time. We both felt sad about not seeing the area’s artisans represented.

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It was too crowded to get any great photos of the space. Outside there were lots of activities going on. Click photos to see larger.

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You could win a really ugly painted car! Demonstrations of clay work, glass work.

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Weaving, spinning, raku pots to decorate.

When we left, the place was buzzing with activity.

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I hope to get back when it is less crowded, and I look forward to the many great exhibits to come. Housed in the same building are two galleries. We buzzed in to the one which features photography. There was some great work.

I spent some time doing some more screen printing and playing with the layout for the winter bamboo fence. Some of you have wondered about the change in the name of our exhibit and the whole idea of Wabi Sabi. Here is the gist of what we were told by the consultant:

She was concerned about our interpretation of the concept in our artwork as it is at once enigmatic but also very stringent in the parameters of what is and what is not Wabi Sabi. She said even most Japanese would be either unwilling or unable to pin down an exact definition and so she suggested that for all our promotional material, we change the wording of the theme to ‘Rustic Elegance’ which is a fair interpretation of the Wabi Sabi concept and make a reference that the artwork is inspired by and pays homage to Wabi Sabi without having to adhere to the strict discipline as to color and subject. That, she said, would not give rise to expectations of what artwork would be displayed as a Japanese person seeing the theme Wabi Sabi would expect to see primarily rustic antiques or items that in some way were made from old distressed materials. She said the Leonard Koren book probably describes it best but I asked her for her description of the term. She said Wabi-shi means ‘impoverished’ or ‘miserable’ and Sabi-shi means ‘lonely’ while Sabi-ta means ‘covered with rust’ (literally). She said that things Wabi Sabi become so after a long time and lack the intention of being made as a piece of artwork. A thing is not made Wabi Sabi, it becomes that over time and usually, the cruder and more imperfect or damaged the item is, the more precious it becomes.

I think it is better this way, but I don’t like the idea of rustic elegance, wither. What does that mean? So, I shall just keep on keeping on and see what gets hung.

Wednesday This and That

Wednesday, July 18th, 2007

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How cool is this? Cindy Sheehan autographed one of my bumper stickers for Ellen, who lives in NC. She sent me this photo. She told me that Cindy was there to speak and there were lots of protests and threats against Cindy. Her husband went to take photos and got this autograph. I had some photoshop fun with some photos and have received some new photos which are on the Virtual Iraq War Protest Flickr site. You can get there by clicking on the bumper sticker in my side bar.

I could really go on a rant right now. I am so glad that the Dem’s forced the debate last night. I feel that momentum is on the side of moving faster towards bringing our troops home. I am saving the rant for another day.

I had an art date with Mr C today. It was a rainy, summer day. A perfect day to head downtown and spend the afternoon at the Portland Art Museum. The current exhibit is Rembrandt and the Golden Age of Dutch Art. We have been her over a year and have been remiss in joining the museum, which we did today. When we lived in Santa Rosa, we belonged to the fine arts museums which is collective, including the De Young, Palace of Legion of Honor and the Asian Art Museum, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. I am very happy to have a husband who enjoys the arts with me.

One of the paintings that struck my funny bone was of a group of Dutch young people, in full 1600’s fancy dress. They were having a party — quite a scene of debauchery. A puritanical couple was looking on in disdain. The listener’s guide said that people of that time would have had a fascination with how these folks led their lives. I was thinking that it was the People Magazine or Access Hollywood of it’s day!

We stopped at the Farmer’s Market on the way home which made dinner very wonderful. I bought baby beets and roasted them and served them on the sauteed beet greens with a little red wine vinegar. Mr C does not like beets so they were all mine. I only lost a pound this past week for a total of 6 1/2 pounds. I think it is more than that, but it was cold and I wore heavier pants. (Excuses, excuses!)

Last night I attended a High Fiber Diet planning session for the Japanese Garden show. Some of us brought our work to show. It is interesting to see the variety of ways people are interpreting wabi sabi. apparently, the garden has a consultant who has written a book on wabi sabi, and she is a bit concerned about our using this as a theme. Our show coordinator is meeting with her next week.

I think my Bamboo fence piece was very well received so I am thinking of doing another. Look what I found — this photo of a bamboo fence taken by my son at the garden last year.

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I played around with this in photoshop and am going to make a thermofax screen and print it on fabric, too. Lately, I have more ideas for work that I can keep up with. This is a good thing.

Tomorrow morning, Miss Mia is coming over to play with me while Miles is at school and Steph meets some friends for coffee. I am looking forward to some solo time with her.