Tag: political demonstrations

No King’s Collage

October 22, 2025

Dear Liza,

Once I had rested and recovered from the long, crowded No King’s March, I wanted to capture the spirit of it for my Journal. I mean, how often does one get to be part of such a gathering? I wrote about it, of course, but words were missing what I was looking for.

Gathering bits from the collage box and junk mail, I found lots of ideas, from the silly to the civic. Scooby Doo certainly captured the goofy spirit of the day, and a Liberty torch seemed appropriate. The random animals represent all the costumes and pets that were on display.

I needed The Willamette River, of course, and green grass of Tom McCall Waterfront Park. But this was definitely a CITY march…

So, skyscrapers cut from the recent voter’s pamphlet got added. But now the sky looked too empty! I tried a cool tissue paper Gelli print, but it was just too much. And where should that bicycle go?

I finally settled on a dot-printed sky of teal blue, made using a piece of plastic shelf liner Ruthie Inman gave me years ago. I like how it fills the space but doesn’t overpower the scene. The long blue wisps in the sky are slivers cut from the same magazine page as the river.

I like how the collage captures the urban, goofy, joyous feel of the city and the crowd. and I am grateful to have been there.

Love,

Grandma Judy

No Kings March 2.0

October 19, 2025

Dear Liza,

Yesterday was the second country-wide No Kings March here in the U.S. Auntie Bridgett and I got to participate while Grandpa Nelson stayed home with the kittens.

A lot of what made this demonstration special was the silly costumes! I didn’t have my phone where I could get at it easily, so I didn’t take any pictures. But they are all over the Internet if you want to see. Here is me in my bright yellow Lala the Teletubby suit. Happy shout out to Buffalo Exchange for the joy!

Once we were properly costumed, we took a Standing Room Only full #15 bus downtown. The route had been altered because of the march, which put us even closer to the Battleship Oregon Monument, where the crowd was gathering to hear speakers.

There were so many happy, dressed up, smiling people! The signs were wonderful, too. My favorite so far is, “If we don’t fix the timeline, Spock gets a beard!” Ask your Dad about that one.

Once the march started (and it takes a really long time to get thousands of people pointed in the same direction) we walked East on Pine to 3rd, then south to the Hawthorne Bridge, then to the East side, where we just kept on walking home.

The Unpresidented (yes, that’s right) marching band made us all dance as we went along, and some drones took pictures of the crowd. The one above shows about a one block area….

And in this one, zoomed in quite a bit, you can just spot me in my yellow suit with a big round head. See? Just to the right of center?

Crazy to see myself in that throng, but so happy to have been there!

Love,

Grandma Judy

PS. I am still trying to figure out how I changed fonts and how to go back. No worries.