Sunday, April 13, 2014

The Sunny Streets of Portland in April


PDX Art Walk: Self-Guided Street Adventure


No lie, it's over 65F this weekend!!!! I can't EVER remember a sunny, warmer, sunroof-down kinda summer in all the years I've lived in Portland. Yes, please, and can we have another SoCal spring? 

In preparation for my trip to Germany next month, I treated this weekend excursion as a dry run for the following: shoe fit, handbag functionality, and personal stamina. SO glad I'm ordering some better flats - ouchie! By handbag is small, but did get heavy at the end of the tour. My stamina was directly proportional to the number of small snacks I kept on hand! Better make sure that handbag scenario is addressed to allow maximum space for almonds and dried fruit.

The walking tour was FANTASTIC. I have a crazy great map ("A Guide to Portland Public Art") with multiple walking routes through the city. There's also a free corresponding iPhone app with dropped pins on outdoor displays. If you haven't trekked around, you will be astounded with the number and variety of public art! Here's what caught my eye. What's your favorite piece of Portland art?

Cat in Repose - Kathleen McCullough
Looks like those soap bar carvings we all made in middle school! Good kittie.


View from the suspension bridge at Union Station. The bridge jiggles.


Cairns - Christine Bourdette
This collection of 5, are so fun to stand next to! Each cairn is totally unique with perfect tapers and width variance. The silver ledgestone plays off the brick station wonderfully. These 3-D pieces are very viewer-friendly; you'll have to stand next to them to get the full experience. 


Each cairn is topped with a capstone to cover the central opening. 




Did you notice the detail work? (The overlap onto the brickwork.) This guy also has an indented layer about 1.5' off the ground. Almost like the artist left subtle characteristics in each piece for us to discover!


Driver's Seat - Don Merkt
A giant eye, reverse-order Roman numeral clock face, plus a giant seat and steering wheel all aimed at the Station. I feel like this is actually a junglegym tenuously masked as an artpiece! Climb aboard and grapple with this piece. Love the three large eyelashes and the way the clock face acts as the pupil with the remaining negative space as the white's of the giant oculus. Clever.....

The Legend of the Green Man of Portland - Daniel Duford
This display is also a set. There are 10 pieces along 5th and 6th from a graphic novel telling the story of a mythic "green man" viewed periodically throughout the city inspiring visions of a legendary tree and mysterious previously-unseen building. Some of the pieces are numbered reader boards with cool colors and some are large monuments. Fellow blogger, Patrick tells of his encounter with The Green Man here. Who know's what magic may befall you in the midst of the city....

Burls Will Be Burls - Bruce Conkle

Untitled - Bruce West
This one is so simple I actually walked half a block before realizing I had passed it! I see the shape of two figures laying down in the band duo. Shadows of the newly-leafed trees participate in the visual experience darkening different sections of the stainless steel. It's grown on me - sleek, interpretable, cool.

Daddy Long Legs - Mel Katz
Great color choices! Especially for our (normally!) bleak weather.



Pile - Malia Jensen
Put TWO birds on it! An on two books, a folded pillow, and an artfully askew crate to be exact! Cute and fun. This is a great one to twirl around for a different experience on each whimsical side.

Portland Shopping. Yes, it's Fabulous




Solabee! Found a gem of a store that has inspired yet another summer resolution - get a green living space with more houseplants that I tend well and do not devastate! Overwhelmed with the descriptive words required to give you an accurate assessment of this botanical gem, go visit their brick and morter or at the very least their luscious web presence.

Boy's Fort - The funky Portland bloke's version of Hallmark. Only better. For a tomboy like me into graphic, oversized,  industrial furnishing and cool textiles this whole store is like a packed Christmas stocking. Cheers!

Johnny Sole - Don't go anywhere else for leather shoes and handbags. Bring some coin, you'll want to get you some boots!


3 comments:

  1. Wow - this looks like such a nice area!

    xo,
    Al
    www.sparklesandstilettos.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Happy Easter Shea! I hope you have a great break.
    x
    Melissah from Coastal Style

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey Allie and Melissah - Yes, when the sun shines, Portland is h-e-a-v-e-n! Happy Easter to you both!

    ReplyDelete