Art Along the Way

Dear Liza,

Art is everywhere in Portland! On our long walk through the neighborhoods last week, we got to see all sorts of it.

In Kerns, the old Sunshine Dairy building is due to be torn down and the lot turned into a high rise apartment building. It is home to this extensive, colorful mural. I like to mention the difference between “tagging”, which is just scribbled names or words, and “street art”, which demonstrates creativity, planning, and skill. This mural, which I would most definitely call street art, will disappear when the building does.

Delightful farming animals at Gabriel’s Bakery PDX

Just across the Banfield Freeway is Gabriel’s Bakery PDX USA. Besides smelling delicious, each of its loading dock doors has a delightful mural, depicting animals helping out with the wheat harvest. Llamas, sheep and even a mama fox and her cub are shown in peasant clothes. They are adorable.

Crossing into Sullivan’s Gulch, we found this mural to remind us where we were. It was painted by volunteers and shows Native art and other original occupants of the place.

Political statements are everywhere in Portland, and this was my favorite of the day.

A yarn-bombing always shows a fun neighborhood. Creativity on display in a non-permanent, non-vandalism way is always welcome, in my opinion.

In the Eliot neighborhood we found this display in a front yard. Is is a playful cemetery? Or just a way to show off some pretty plates?

Murals in the Eliot neighborhood show realistic and symbolic local stories… mothers and children missing absent fathers, ghosts of those who have passed away, and a strong ethnic personality.