Books with Pictures Comic Con Part 2

Dear Liza,

Besides family, friends, and artist tables at the Books with Pictures Comic Con, there were all sorts of activities. The Garden Stage (in the beautiful garden Katie has been nurturing for a few years) was home to a cosplay contest for kids and adults.

Elias, a very young Jedi, won the kid’s division. He had forgotten his light saber at home, so Katie gave him one of hers, made for Free Comic Book Day from a pool noodle. He was delighted!

There was a cartooning duel, with pairs of artists trying to out-think and out-draw each other. The first contest had a random doodle as the prompt, which led to these awesome drawings….

A windsurfing puffin and a coffee drinking moose.

Douglas Wolk hosted a Trivia contest with really hard questions! Besides being an author of books about comics (“All the Marvels” is his latest), he also teaches classes about them. These were really interesting questions, like “Which American comic strip has run since 1914 and only had three artists?” I’ll let you look up the answer, if you like.

There were also discussions and interviews, featuring Kelly Sue Deconnick, Leela Cormac, and Carl Sciacchitano.

The last act of the day was Lizzy Kirby, who plays guitar and sings lovely songs about love and cats. She sang my favorite, with the catchy chorus of “Meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow.”

To make sure we had ann exciting day, between all the art, contests, and interviews, we had a few spats of strong winds that blew in rain and hail and tried to carry away the inventory!


Tents rattled, comics went flying, and folks scrambled to hang onto their banners. Each storm lasted about ten minutes, then we would have sparkling sun for an hour or so.

It was very …. Let’s say entertaining. More tomorrow!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Books with Pictures Comic Con Part 1

Dear Liza,

This past weekend was the third BWiPCon, an outdoor comic convention held down at Auntie Katie’s book shop. It was amazing!

The event was bigger this year, with the street closed for a whole long block and the garden being used for performances, interviews, and contests. Fifty vendors sold books, art, jewelry, and all sorts of beautiful, cute, and delightfully odd stuff.

Auntie Bridgett had her Auntie Beeswax booth, of course, and met lots of folks who read her comic in The Willamette Week newspaper.

We helped with set up and got to meet a ‘new’ cousin! Grandpa Nelson’s Aunt Bonnie had seven kids, and her eldest was George. George’s son, who goes by D, came up to help with the con. He worked like crazy!

D set up a dozen tents, carried anything that needed carrying, cleared gutters, and set up the stage. I was so happy to meet him and grateful for his hard work on the busy day.

Auntie Katie worked hard, too, before, during and after the event. Her volunteers were so well organized that the vendors felt well-cared for and appreciated.

Andrea Gilroy, Katie’s business partner at Books with Pictures in Eugene, came up to help, and it was good to see her and Katie having a nice visit. Good friends can sure help lighten the load.

I will tell you more about BWiPcon tomorrow!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Congratulations, Jasper!

Dear Liza,

Cousin Jasper has graduated the eighth grade! I am so proud of him. I am also amazed at how quickly he has gone from quiet, unsure little dude to amazing young-man-to-be.

His promotion ceremony at Winterhaven (called Winterhaven at Historic Brooklyn School) was just right. It was a mix of tradition, like Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance”, and quirkiness, in that we all hummed the tune as the graduates entered. Teachers told stories, sang, and passed on words of wisdom.

Finally, it was time to graduate. Each student took their turn to get their certificate, shake the principal’s hand, and announce their name and the high school they would be attending. Most of the students hurried through or mumbled, but Jasper stood tall and practically shouted, “My name is Jasper Louis Proctor and I’m going to Benson Polytechnic High School!” I practically exploded with pride.

After cake and conversation in the main hallway, there were some unexpected shenanigans outside. Seeing some fellow eighth graders climbing the sign, Jasper wanted to, as well.

It was a struggle, but he kept at it and got to the top, and was rightly proud of himself. Kestrel helped, of course.

After all the excitement, we had a blessedly quiet dinner at Kanji down on Division, hugged, and said our goodbyes. I am so happy to be able to be here for all the Grandma bits!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Fabric Art Piece

Dear Liza,

I am working on a new kind of art with Ruthie Inman. It involves a background field of fabric, bits of fabric, and a glue medium. I am totally learning as we go along.

I decided to use the silk strips I got from a garage sale, and chose colors for a landscape at sunset. But how they were going to be applied was a mystery.

As I chatted with Ruthie and Vimi, I started guessing what to do next, laying down strips (with no glue yet!) in a landscape sort of arrangement.

But as we talked, it became clear that we should be starting with the background… so my landscape bits got pulled up and I started on the sky. I layered blues, lavenders and purples, with a few sparkly strips leftover from my jellyfish hat. I liked it, so I started gluing them down. It was goopy, but had promise.

I love that this is a collage, and so there will be lots of layers, with the overlapping bits being the most interesting. I kept working even when our group time was over.

I worked my sky down to where my ground will start, and then stopped to get guidance from Ruthie. I sent her photos and she said, “keep going!” So I did.

I’ll keep you posted on what happens next!


Love,

Grandma Judy

After the Impressionists

Dear Liza,

Our eyes were pretty full of beauty as we left the French Moderns exhibit at PAM, but we weren’t done looking yet.

Since the Museum is undergoing an enormous remodel, most of it is just not available, but there was quite a bit of young-people noise coming from the first floor exhibit called “Future Now”.

This is an oddly fascinating show of sneakers… yes, athletic shoes. Old and new, functional and artsy, wearable and not-so-wearable. It was interesting, but there were several happy, totally involved school groups there, all discussing, drawing and designing. We decided we’d come back and see the shoes some other time, when the crowds had gone.

We visited the newly-relocated gift shop, which, as always, is filled with beautiful things. They were having a sale of postcards, and we got 30 for just $3.00! They will be useful for all sorts of artsy schemes.

And, of course, no trip to PAM is complete without lunch at Umbria, just a block towards the river. Enjoying delicious quiche, panini sandwiches, coffee and juice while watching the world go by on bike, foot and skateboard, is just about the best thing ever.

A short walk got us to the bus stop to head home. Roses in the City Hall courtyard made sure we had lots to look at while we waited.

Summer in Portland. Nothing like it.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Monet to Matisse

Dear Liza,

Auntie Bridgett and I took the bus down to the Portland Art Museum on Friday for the opening of a show called “Monet to Matisse: French Moderns”. These paintings and sculptures had been borrowed from the collections of the Brooklyn Art Museum in New York.

We were greeted by this wonderful study for Rodin’s Bronze Man.

There were three big galleries of paintings by Monet, Marc Chagall, Berthe Marisot, Edgar Degas, and many others.

These are all impressionists, a style I love, and I was in heaven just walking and staring.

But my favorite painting today was this tiny Marc Chagall, featuring his violin player. The bright colors and careless brush strokes reminded me of paintings by Jerry Garcia, of the Grateful Dead. It just really made me smile.

I will tell you more about our day out tomorrow.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Grand Floral Parade, 2024

Dear Liza,

Last Saturday was Portland’s Rose Parade, and we took the number 75 to the Red line train to get there. It was a delightful, sunny, breezy day, and thousands of folks had lined up before we got there!


Fortunately, we found a spot by the rose hedge along MLK Blvd. that was just right. Bees buzzed and flowers bloomed just for us.

The Parade had all the things a parade should have.
High school bands with great cadences,

Silly floats,

marching groups from Portland and around the world,

Therapy llamas,

and kids to share it all with.

There was also political drama, as we should have been able to predict. A group of protestors were demonstrating against the U.S. involvement in the Israeli-Gaza conflict and moved into the path of the parade.

Some of them laid down in the street snd blocked the road, so the marching groups just bunched up and went around them.

I couldn’t get very close, but here you can see, from left to right, the flags of the Peace Corps group as it marched by, the police line, and the Palestinian flags carried by the protestors.

The irony was a little heavy handed, but so it goes.

Everyone behaved themselves as well as could be expected, and the parade continued with the Police maintaining their line. It all made for a busy, entertaining, perfectly Portland Saturday morning.


And when it went from “Lots of Fun” to “Way Too Much Noise”, we caught the Red Line back to the Hollywood neighborhood and walked up to Fleur de Lis bakery for quiche and coffee and some quiet jazz by these two lovely people.

When our tummies were full and our souls at peace, we bussed back home for a well-deserved lay down.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Nate’s Oatmeal Cookies

Dear Liza,

The new cookie place has opened!! Nate’s Oatmeal Cookies, run by a fine fellow named Nate, of course, (I haven’t found out his last name yet) has opened just down the block on Belmont, and they are wonderful.

Six different kinds of cookies, three of which are vegan and gluten-free, are on offer for $4.00 each, or $20.00 per half dozen. This is not cheap, surely, because Nate uses quality ingredients. Nate even lists the ingredients in his website so you know what you are getting.

As a way of making an objective taste test, we bought one of each. Auntie Bridgett was very happy with the gluten-free Trailblazers, with their cake-like texture and crunchy nuts and chewy raisins. The Snickerdoodles were also delicious, though a bit dense for a snickerdoodle, because of the oatmeal.

The only drawback is that the gluten-free cookies use Vegan butter, which is made with coconut milk, and Auntie Bridgett is allergic to anything coconut. Being a cookie-loving woman, this makes her very sad.

But, thinking positively, I get the rest of the cookies!

I especially loved the Cherry Almond, which have a unique chewy, almond-y goodness.

Everyone should stop by and find their favorite at Nate’s Oatmeal Cookies! Smiling Channing will be happy to sell you some.


Love,

Grandma Judy

My Completed SOAK Journal

Dear Liza,

Having spent a few days making the cover of the SOAK Journal, I spent another week filling the whole thing up!

The cover got the year and title, just in case I get to go to another SOAK event.

Since I wanted to record my activities and feelings accurately, many of the pages are all about words. Lots and lots of words.

But SOAK is such a visual treat, it would be a crime to leave the Journal un-illustrated. I did what I could while camping,

And did more detailed work once I was home.

Flaps, fold-out pages and pockets allowed me to include parts of the SOAK booklet and the stickers that were handed out.

Overall, I feel like I captured my experience pretty well.

Now, I can put the SOAK Journal on the shelf to enjoy later.

Meanwhile, I have another adventure to prepare for!!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Happy Anyway

Dear Liza,

We have another new shop in the neighborhood! This one is called Happy Anyway, on SE Belmont, and is run by Stephanie Sheldon. We know Stephanie because she and her friend Jen used to run Noun, just a few blocks away.

Here is Stephanie and the interior of her shop, as photographed by Maggie Kirkland of Honeysuckle Photography.

Noun had been one of Auntie Bridgett’s favorite places EVER, so we had to go see the new place!

And we were not disappointed. Happy Anyway is lovely, peaceful, and, to use Auntie Bridgett’s word, “curated”. Every item is displayed with the care of a museum piece.

Whether it is a vintage plastic teddy bear or a dandelion encased in lucite, each piece feels magical.

Along with the items, we enjoyed some lovely conversation with Stephanie and Jen.

Once I felt comfortable, I asked if we could have a look at the antique crazy Quilt. Isn’t it wonderful? I hope mine ages as well.

When you come visit, I will take you to see Happy Anyway for a delightful visit.

Love,

Grandma Judy