This past Friday Auntie Bridgett and I walked over to SideStreet Arts for their First Friday show. Gary Hirsch, who makes the Botjoy characters and murals that are all over Portland, was showing his paintings.
The artists at SideStreet provided snacks and beverages as everyone enjoyed Gary’s quirky paintings and happy company.
Many of the paintings sold even before the show opened, thanks to SideStreet’s website, but we could still enjoy them. Paintings that had been sold had a discreet red dot placed on their label.
The associate artists I enjoy were also on display. Julia Janeway had her delightful rabbit ceramics out.
And Jennifer Foran’s beautiful forests painted on slices of wood were as serene as ever.
As we headed home we enjoyed the window display, which included the title of the show: Thoughts, Feelings, Actions.
I feel very fortunate to be able to enjoy art, and artists, in Portland!
You have seen these delightful murals when you visited Portland….you even had your picture taken with one, years ago when you were a tiny Liza.
Well, last Saturday, Auntie Bridgett and I got to make some tiny bots with the fellow who started it all, Gary Hirsch. Gary was running a bot-making workshop at the SideStreet Art Gallery and we were offered two spare spaces. Yes, please! SideStreet Arts is the only gallery that offers his bots and other artwork for sale.
Gary started the session off with some fun improvisation games, to get us thinking together and “outside the box”. It was fun to talk to new people.
The supplies are very basic. Classic, heavy dominoes and oil-based Sharpie markers make for a non-spilly sort of table. Gary asked us to think of someone who might need extra encouragement or recognition, and to keep them in mind as we made the bots.
Carol, a lady at our table, thought of her pets.
Auntie Bridgett thought about bees and people in her improvisation group.
I thought about Ruth, the lady who manages the Blair Community Garden. She works very hard and makes the world happier, healthier, and more beautiful. I will pass it along to her when I see her.
And, of course, whenever I have been making art or looking at art, I always find art out in the world. Look at how these tiny fragile tendrils growing around the gallery door go with the bright pink and green of the new sign!
Portland is a very big city. There are 645,000 (that’s double Salinas), just in the city, with a few million more living in the suburbs and smaller surrounding towns. Many of those people are talented artists.
And there are only so many art galleries, museums, and shops. All the art just won’t fit inside.
So quite a bit of it is outside. This is great! You don’t have to pay to see it, or even go out of your way. It is right there on the way to store or whizzing by the bus window.
When I talk about Art Outside, I distinguish between streetart, which takes planning, care and talent, and graffiti, which just takes a can of spray paint. Graffiti people, who call themselves “taggers” usually have a signature set of letters that they spray wherever they can reach, like a kid writing their name on the wall.
To me, this isn’t art. It is vandalism. People spend their time and money to cover up the graffiti, or wash it off. Art outside is a perfect reflection of people’s ability to make their world better, or worse.
Graffiti spoiling a Gary Hirsch mural
I love returning to a neighborhood after a few months and seeing a new mural. “How long has that been here? It’s so cool!”
Sometimes, people make me so mad! You remember a few months ago, I told you about the wonderful new mural that Gary Hirsch painted on the outside of SideStreet Arts Gallery?
Mural, before tagging
Well yesterday, in broad daylight, some mean people came by with cans of spray paint and wrote graffiti (this is called “tagging”) right on the mural!
After tagging…
Auntie Bridgett called the police to report it, and then called Gary Hirsch. He said he has a special solvent to clean the black paint off with.
And another bit…
He also said that it would help if we could go give it a scrub with dry towels first, to let it look less awful and let the cleaner work faster.
Auntie Bridgett really, really hates graffiti!
We gathered some rags, headed over, and started scrubbing. Nice folks walking past told us we were doing a good job, and stopped to ask who did the mural and how it got tagged, and what a shame it was that people ruined things for no reason.
Denise, scrubbing!Me, scrubbing…
Denise, who is a member of the gallery (like Auntie Bridgett) came to do her turn running it, and stepped out to scrub for a while. Michael Pratt, who owns the building, came out and helped, too. With eight arms, we made good progress! The parts that we couldn’t clean needed the protective varnish. I hope Gary’s solvent can help.
Auntie Bridgett and Michael
We imagined ourselves as an anti-graffiti octopus, making the world better eight arms at a time! Good company makes even the hardest jobs easier.
Thanks so much for calling me last night to tell me Happy Birthday! It was the happy cap on a fun evening.
Zine!Gary
I opened my package from Portland first thing in the morning. Auntie Bridgett and Grandpa Nelson sent me a copy of Auntie Bridgett’s new zine, about fonts and typefaces. It is so pretty and interesting! They also sent a cute card she had made, of two cats that look very much like my darling people.
First Card
Of course, the whole day can’t be celebration. It was a Monday, and a school day. My students had all had fun weekends, too, and didn’t seem to want to be in school. Following directions was hard, and treating each other nicely was even harder, so by the time I was done with my conferences, I was done in.
I got home and Auntie Olga, who has this week off as her Spring Break, had done the shopping. She ordered pizza from Riley and Papa’s Pizza, which used to be Mountain Mike’s. I had some tea and fruit and fell asleep until the pizza got delivered and Liza got home from school.
Woman Cards
We opened some wine and Uncle David got home. He was even more tired than I had been. But he is still good company. Before we ate, I opened my presents! It was an accidental robot themed party! Auntie Bridgett and Grandpa Nelson sent me a little robot painted on a heavy domino, from the artist at Botjoy. It’s a tiny robot who is “programmed to love you…to notice all the nice things about you, and, when held to your ear, to tell you why people love you…”. Just the thing for an emotionally exhausted teacher. Perfect.
My presents from Auntie Olga, Uncle David and Liza were wonderful, too. One was a tiny tea robot, who holds your tea bag and looks fabulous. I have enjoyed his services already! There was also a pack of “Woman cards”…a real deck of playing cards with Rosa Parks, Hillary Clinton, Mary Cassatt, and 10 other female movers and shakers. There were even Lucille Ball and Phyllis Diller as the jokers! And there was a “never-ending card” that Liza and her mommy had made that kept opening and opening… it was amazing.
Auntie Bridgett mentioned that there might be a second card in the mailbox, in addition to the one that came with my presents. There was!!
Last card!
After dinner Auntie Bridgett and Grandpa Nelson called and chatted until my throat was sore, then I played and read with Liza. Then you called and my day was complete.
I slept the sleep of a 62 year old birthday girl filled with joy, love, and the knowledge that Spring Break is only 3 days away.
Dear Liza 