June 2 Rock 4 Rights

The most powerful force on the planet is optimism. That is why the work of Amnesty International is critical. The individual optimism created by writing a letter, post card or email cascades into a great social force which moves governments. In turn, when the weight is lifted from those imprisoned, constrained or oppressed, they can get back to creating a better world. The news of Amnesty's work and their many successes is an inspiration in itself. It's an exponential cascade of world changing.

Tonight you can participate in Amnesty's world changing and have fun! The Ausie chapter of Amnesty launched a Rock 4 Rights music series. It's spread to the US, the first Rock 4 Rights outside AU/NZ is right here in Portland!

Ancient tribal distinctions could be a positive source of identity and pride, could be the starting point for compassion and collaboration. Too often though, they are the source of conflict. Thus is the case in the Darfur region of Sudan where the conflict is also affecting the neighboring CAR and Chad. My experience in Africa has been that there is much less starvation than I thought. It is the result of drought, but more often is the result of displacement and the concentration of refugees beyond the the land's sustainability. In the Darfur, an estimated 2.5 million have been displaced. They are dieing.

Portland Amnesty's Rock 4 Rights is rocking for Amnesty's Darfur programs and for its womens' programs worldwide. The Retrofits, The Young Immortals, The Antecedents and Sexton Blake play - you can check their samples on the Portland Amnesty Myspace. Advance tickets, $10 (cheap!!) are linked off the Myspace. World changing has never been more fun!

Portland Rock 4 Rights Hawthorne Theater 1507 SE 39th all ages $10 advance

June 2 Buddhist Festival

One thing about Buddhists is that they don't try to convert you. Never heard of a fundamentalist Buddhist either. But they do like to have fun and an example is the Portland Buddhist Festival. The varied Portland Buddhist entities will be present, you can have your pet blessed and there are a bunch of kid things. All the details are here. Noon to 5:30 Colonel Summers Park, SE 17th and Taylor (Belmont) Free

June 2 Artists' Films Outdoors

Tonight see films by some seminal artists, outside. Showing will be Spiral Jetty by Robert Smithson, Railroad Turnbridge by Richard Serra and Sun Tunnels by Nancy Holt. It is no accident that these these films were made in the West with its grand landscapes which resist human alteration.

Sera is known for large steel sculptures of minimal form. They are fabricated with a steel formulated to develop a uniform patina of plain old rust. One public piece, "tilted arc" was removed and destroyed because people didn't like it, or like walking around it. It was a success in every dimension. Railroad Turnbridge documents the machinery that can reverse a locomotive. It was filmed in Portland. I must admit that a kinetic Sera could be quite dangerous, so I'm glad the artist stopped his exploration of movement with this film

Smithson's most famous piece, Spiral Jetty, is exactly that in a remote corner of the Great Salt Lake. Holt's Sun Tunnels are in an even remoter spot as noted by Portland filmmaker Matt McCormick

The Portland environs are ripe for outside art. The old Horsehead series had a nice run completing with about 10 invited works a year on a wooded and meadowed tract in Duvall, Washington. One summer day, artists visited to picnic and explore the new pieces and some old ones decaying into the landscape. There was no map, just word of mouth and the joy of discovery and exploration. (One year there was a side project raffle by disgruntled artists with the prize the opportunity to smash a Chihuly) Scott Wayne Indiana did a great show at Mt Scott Park last year - let's see more!

Tonight's films are 16mm analog, with that rich tonal range. The site a sweet urban garden. Music by J.P. Jenkins + Bird Costumes. A Cinema Project project. Music at 8:30, films 9

Artemisia Garden & Gallery 110 SE 28th Avenue xAnkeny $6

June 1 Eastside Art Openings

All the usual spots will be open. These shows will be up all month for your considered pleasure. Recommended -

In the 811 Block

Moshi-Moshi mounts very special show of ray guns by Ray Horneau. There is en extensive explanation with pictures by curator Brian Elliot at http://kushitan.blogspot.com/2007/05/rayguns-at-moshi-moshi-portland-or.html. Horneau's rayguns are complemented by Portland artists' responses, including a felt raygun. Moshi-Moshi

The Grass Hut shows very poppy psych by the Hiberts! That would be family Snaggs H., her husband Arbito H., and his two cousins Oliver H. and Spencer H.. Bright felt work sits beside glossy painting. This work will make you happy. Buy some now for the pick me up you will need next mid winter. Details at http://grasshutcorp.blogspot.com/2007/05/hiberts.html

Redux shows Vinyl Killers, paintings on old vinyl disks.

There is also a party out back behind 811 for a new Moss-like retail store opening in the building.

811 E Burnside 6-9+ish



Jessie Hayward presents THE HOOK UP at New American Art Union. It includes artists you should see if you don't know their work including Brenden Clenaghen, Jacqueline Ehlis, Ellen George, Sean Healy, Jenene Nagy, Jeff Jahn, TJ Norris and Stephanie Robison. At New American Art Union 922 SE Ankeny

June 1 East Meets West

East Meets West is an evening that happens rarely of some of the most beautiful belly dancing you will see. The ancient Eastern traditions of belly dancing رقص شرقي meets our West Coast sensibility for innovation and evolution on the tectonic ring of fire. At any moment the world could end, so we live life maximally. You can get an idea from the Myspace. 722 SE Burnside Prompt 9 start 10 advance, 13 door.

May 31-June 3, 7-23 Bikemania!

We love the diversity of Portland bike cultures. PedalPalooza is a two week gear jammin' (fixies welcome) festival of bike! June 7-23. PedalPalooza includes bike birding, scavenger hunts, midnight rides, nekkid rides, bike jousting, foreign langiage rides, various food and drink rides, bike polo, bike karaoke, bike in movies, a bike swap, bike photo expeditions, bike washes, a 24 hour zombie hunt and a bike wedding. Pedalpalooza culminates in the family frendly officially sponsored Multnomah County Bike Fair on June 23.

The Sprockettes, perhaps inspired by the full moon, can't wait, so they celebrate the First Quarterly Moon Castle Ballyhoo! May 31-June 3. Yea!! Thursday is Family Fun Day! beginning at 5 at 20th and NE Alberta. Free grills for grillin' your bringin's, a watermelon seed spitting contest, ice cream sundae making, fort building, hula hoops and blindfolded face painting. At 8:30 there is an animal costume marching band parade to the mystery movie location. Bring blankies and things for sittin' on.

Friday is Crafty Day! Bikemeetup at the warehouse at 5040 SE Milwaulkie at 5. This involves hopscotching, various eating contests, random letter writing mail art, wacky haircutting, head shaving and crazy dye jobs. Pot luck dinner at 6. Then it's a bike parade to the waterfront to see the fireworks, fininshing with a bike in movie at the Recyclery at about 10:30.

Sunday is Kooky Competition Day! Beginning at Peninsula Park at 10, it's a donut hole breakfast. That's just eating donuts before a ride. Then strong prople will compete in an all out whipped cream whipping contest, a crepe batter beating contest, broom acrobatic races in tests of balance and a 5 legged obstacle race. Are we tired yet? Then lunch on crepes! After that it's a ride to Alberta Park at 2 where you can decorate your bike. Also on the agenda are chin to handlebars races, tall bike jousting, a 3 bike+2 person race, mini bike polo and team bike riding style contest - that's 2 people on one bike. Are we tired yet? Noooo!! At 7:30 the bikes parade to the 5040 SE Milwaulkie warehouse for a BBQ and bike in movies Quicksilver and Breaking Away. Bring yer grillin's to the BBQ.

Sunday is Decompression Day! Are we tired yet? This is the easy day. Meet at the Mount Tabor base camp IV aka the bottom reservoir. Bring mountaineering 'quipment - that's ropes, ice axen, carabiners, down jacket, glacier glasses, mittens and the like. Conquer Mt Tabor. It's a walk up as they say. Be sure yo keep your climbin' pardners on belay. Plant your special flag at the top and take a photo op. After, regroup at the Hawthorne Hostel's pot luck brunch at 11:30. From thence depart with pencil and paper by bike at 2 for sketch and bike.

Wow! The Ballyhoo is FREE!

PedalPalooza has a huge calendar at Shift2Bikes.

May 30 Lead Pencil Studios Art and Architecture

Amalgam Annie Han and Daniel Mihalyo are Lead Pencil Studio, an art and architecture super duo.

As Lead Pencil, they are equally at home making buildings, designing interior spaces and creating site specific conceptual art. Their aesthetic is clear and elegant, practicing conservation of material and form.

Han and Mihalyo met at UofO in architecture school. After school they traveled the West, photographing the abandoned hulks that once made fortunes grinding trees into wood. One result was Mihalyo's 1997 book "Wood Burners", photographs of giant furnaces for burning lumbering leftovers, and a show at Blue Sky Gallery. Another result: those giant scale ruins have informed their use of space in making installations today.

Tonight they show their work and talk about it.

Lead Pencil has been selected for residencies at the Center for Land Use Interpretation, Wendover, Utah; the SF Exploratorium; and the Headlands Center for the Arts, Marin. Shows include the Henry; COCA, both Seattle; the SF Exploratorium; Miami Aqua; Disjecta in the Columbia Gorge, Art in General, NYC; and SF MOMA. They have also received The Stranger Genius Award, the Architecture League of NY Emerging Voice Award, Artists' Trust and Creative Capital Awards, Seattle and NYC respectively.

See their show too themed on "light" at the Lawrimore Project in Seattle May 3- June 30.

W+K Atrium 224 NW 13th 7PM Free

May 27 Ten Tiny Dances

Dance and ballet thrives on the expanse of the stage, sort of like playing as a child on the park's infinite lawn. Ten Tiny Dances takes modern dance's aesthetic and shrinks it onto a stage 4 feet square. That in itself allows the performance to happen in a bar or restaurant; it also challenges the dancers. This performance, the 13th in the series includes movers Michael Shoehorn Conley, Robyn Conroy, Anne Furfey, Jenn Gierada, Margretta Hansen, Agnieszka Laska, Tere Mathern, Summer Morgan, Katrina O'Brien, and Cydney Wilkes + Mike Barber. Each performance is short of like a short film, so you don't even need to be enamored of each. At Bluehour 250 NW 13th 7:30PM $15

May 25 Zoe Keating Cello

The cello. Its body scale proportion fashioned in woods such as ebony, maple and spruce produce a tone which cannot help but move the listener. Cellist Zoe Keating extends the cello aesthetic into the current age of sampling, now. Using a loop sampler, she lays down live plucked and bowed phrases upon which larger compositions evolve. (For an unusual early pre digital sampling example of the possibilities of this idea, look up flutist Paul Horn's recordings in the Taj Mahal, where natural echo of the space allowed Horn to accompany himself.)

Tonight Keating plays an intimate livingroom-style performance at the Mississippi Studios. 3939 N Mississippi http://www.mississippistudios.com 10PM $10

May 24 The Village Building Convergence

The Village Building Convergence is the annual conference of the City Repair Project, created right here in Portland. Architect Mark Lakeman, living and developing his architectural and urban planning theories in a garage in Sellwood, created a creative community around serving tea for free and sharing desert potlucks in a dreamy environment constructed of recycled materials and decorated by artists. Each week the creative people of Portland gathered to converse and play music in a sort of Ewok Village. The City Repair grew up into the Rebuilding Center and all those rounded benches and structures constructed of adobe around town. I'm a confirmed modernist, but concrete is much too energy intensive to use to build a structure intended for less than a 5 year lifespan. The Village Building Convergence allows volunteers to learn to collaborate in creating experimental structures, in the physical realm, perhaps in the social realm too.

In the evening, the Village Building Convergence transforms the former Disjecta space, in perhaps its most successful instance, into a sort of Oregon Country Fair filled with nice people who are trying to change the world.

Tonight one of their speakers is rabbi Michael Lerner. Psychotherapist an author Lerner has good insights into how to get down to actual world changing. He often extends his ideas one step beyond their natural application, but that is more a problem of the pace of change in society. So you might find his ideas filtered through your world view a source of hope that, yes, the world can be changed, sustainably, for the better.

VBC Disjecta SE 2nd and Burnside 7PM $15

May 21 Lynn Marie Kirby Impressionistic Video Artist

Lynn Marie Kirby is a film and video artist known for many years for impressionistic slices of everyday life. Now teaching at CCA, she has added video installation to her palette. Some work exploits the boundaries of the media itself. She has exposed film without a lens, used outdated analog video tools and produced works with unexpected freezes and time reversals. You will have to judge for yourself if her aesthetic impacts your perception - the emotional content of everyday media repurposed to art rests on individual responses to novelty and familiarity. Don't miss giant Dan Graham June 4 in the same series.
PSU Hall Street Cinema 510 SW Hall 8:15PM Free

May 18 Miranda July

Miranda July used to live here. Between Olympia and LA. She wove punk club performances, recordings on Kill Rock Stars, a video chain letter, college film screenings, short fiction, screen writing, collaborative open source art, museum installations, small films and stage performances into a beautiful dream. That is what her work is about and that is how it affects the audience. She deftly navigates identity, the black holes surrounding us and love to make something magical.

Even as she imagined and performed her stage pieces here, a full length film was outlining itself. Perhaps you have seen it, "Me, You and Everyone We know", interwoven stories of improbable love.

July is a writer and a storyteller. Her seemingly casual and geeky performances are crafted for months in written form, then memorized. So her performances, films and writings form a creative continuity. Her short stories have been published in the Paris Review, McSweeny's, the New Yorker, Harpers and elsewhere.

Tonight she reads from a new book of them. "No One Belongs Here More Than You".

Tickets, which will sell out, online at http://www.ticketweb.com/user?region=oregon&query=schedule&venue=congregational

First Congregational Church 1126 SW Park 7PM $13

May 18 Ellen Johnson Surleaf Speaks

African politics is one of my interests, I've been involved in it. Tonight the president of Liberia speaks, Ellen Johnson Surleaf. On the West Coast of Africa, the last 25 years of Liberian history has a deep circle of hell, much darker than Conrad could ever imagine. Warlord Charles Taylor, who escaped from prison in the US where he was detained for fraud, led a civil war in the 80's and 90's, ultimately becoming president. He specialized in creating armies of drug fueled child soldiers in Liberia and later Sierra Leone. He had no ideology other than personal enrichment driven by exploiting the tropical hardwoods, minerals and diamonds there. As a result, he is awaiting trial for crimes against humanity in the World Court. After Taylor left the country, Surleaf was elected the first woman head of state in Africa. Her vision for healing the country should be fascinating. Perhaps some clues may be found in these interviews. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall 7PM sold out www.worldoregon.org

May 18-19 Alien Abductions

Dr David Jacobs, who operates the International Center for Abduction Research, speaks about alien abductions. Afterwards there is a bluegrass show by Jackstraw and a performnce by Kirby Swatosh and The Moonrock Patrol. That's Friday evening. Saturday there will be a UFO costume parade, and alien pet costume contest and an alien costume ball. I am not making this up. All the "facts" may be found at http://www.ufofest.com/ $7 for talk. 7PM

May 15 How is Politics Being Transformed by the Internet?

If you know me you know I have an interest in politics. It is a complicated thing with a large number of small working parts, my specialty. I follow it for sport, closely enough to maybe find the small lever with the large effect. A few times I have. When I did I used it. But it is not an all consuming pastime for me.

If you have an interest in politics, the Bus Project is a band of merry pranks-, I mean politicos, who register voters and put the fun in politics. Tonight they put on stage "Digital Politics - How Technology is Transforming the Political Playing Field". Featured will be a huge figure in the field David Sirota, who is a progressive political strategist, consultant, and blogger too.

Are the days of door to door hand shaking and baby kissing over? Blue plate dinners replaced by PayPal? More raver fliers than campaign literature in your mailbox? Will the hundreds of millions spent on repetitive television ads be replaced by slow as mud Flash-y web sites? Is an unholy alliance between web 2.0 and politics emerging? Do MySpacer's, YouTuber's and Second Lifer's actually vote in the default world?

This is strictly and upbeat, fun event - no crying in your beer(s) over the sad state of politics - it can only get better! Maybe your tools to make it so will emerge tonight.

Note that the mail-in election ends tonight at 8PM. You can drop your ballot at the Multnomah County elections office which less than 10 short blocks from ACME until 8PM. Voting? Yes, that is part of politics too.

Tuesday, May 15th, 7pm
Acme Food & Drink
1305 SE 8th Ave (SE 8th and Main)
FREE

May 10 Talks Which are not Boring

Perhaps unknowingly referencing the Lab's Lecture Series, in which artists collaborated to produce spectacular multimedia lectures, only slightly sub-museum quality displays, audience participation, beer, and DJ's in an illegal warehouse studio...this would be Lecture Series 2.0.

Urban Honking, Portland and beyond's creative eye on, well, Portland and beyond, is starting a yet to be named lecture series. (Lecture Series 2.0?)

Tonight Claire Evans discusses mid century design, it is as earnestly referenced as it is inevitably approaching antiquity, and shows some of the films of Charles and Ray Eames films, big designers and thinkers of the time. Greg Borenstein opines on art history for non-art historians. Aaron Flint Jamison, editor of Veneer Magazine speaks on media. Mathew Stadler, local writer, publisher and interpersonal mediaist lays down his thoughts as well.

All this talk happens at the Mississippi Ballroom, N Mississippi and Shaver. 7PM. Free.

May 8 Rock Paper Scissors Redux

Our favorite sinners at the Florida Room host the church of Rock Paper Scissors. Its conception lost in mythical pasts, the game is thought to have been originated in Japan in the 19th century where it is known as Janken. This is serious business, and anecdotal reports claim major multibillion dollar business decisions have been made by RPS. The Florida Room's annual RPS Championship starts with registration at 6:30 and game on at 7 or so. With the briefest of innings, it is unlikely to last late. Best of all, the money raised goes to the Humane Society.

At the Florida Room 435 N Killingsworth 7PM

May 4 Eastside Art Openings

In the 811 Block...

While Stumptown has Swallow, the Grass Hut has Drifters. These drifters are not just any drifters. No, they are Dawn Riddle, Driftwould and The Reverend Benny Bob. Riddle makes drawing style paintings, only a little rough and folky, themed on sea creatures. Driftwould-Matthew Feyld lives in Canada where he creates clean cartoony figures. The Rev lives out in the woodsy woods and for this show paints wildlife on wood. The Grass Hut

Moshi-moshi shows Synthetic Down Comforter, paintings by Sean Christiansen and Stefan Salto. The flier shows a super odd watercolor-y portrait of two people and a teddy bear asleep. Moshi Moshi

Redux shows wall pieces by Faryn Davis. Davis is a painter, constructs mixed media wall pieces and makes jewelery. Redux

All 811 E Burnside


The New American Art Union mounts an artists' book show. 922 SE Ankeny


The Office hosts the 511 show, a group of studiomates - Forgash, British Sarah, Neir, Scotty, Emily, Coyle, Dan, Shelby and maybe some other gravity hounds, that have toiled all gray winter and are now busting out with "photos, carcasses, paint, found art, print media, rock music, and social awkwardness". OK. Massive bike arrival encouraged. At Office Skate and Snow 2136 East Burnside


Sarah Boss shows abstract photographs of familiar surfaces in macro. The fusion of our touch and visual experiences, perhaps even as babies, informs our sense of textural pleasure, for a lifetime. (Spoiler: many of the photos in this show are of Play-Doh shapes.) Photographer Boss and her partner are the masterminds of the max-awesome Artists' Audition Project. At Brian Marki 2236 NE Broadway


Newspace shows "Defining Identities: Three Young Adults with Cancer" - portraits and "Columbia River Portfolio" - landscapes. http://www.newspacephoto.org/gallery/ 1632 SE 10th

Small A shows art by SF collaborators Bob Linder and Will Rogan - photos, drawing and video inspired by Murakami's Hear the Wind Sing. Rogan speaks Monday at the PSU lecture series. http://smallaprojects.com/ 1430 SE 3rd


The cozyultra Press Club shows artist Rebecca Haack 2621 SE Clinton St til 10


For completeness, but without editorial review, other possibilities include, Center Space 420 SE 6th; Tiny's coffee 12th and Hawthorne (often quite good shows) - maybe something too at their MLK spot; the Night Light 2100 SE Clinton (last time I was in they had some fairy fantasy paintings, so you are on your own there); 12x16 gallery in Sellwood (Zeb Andrews - Pinscapes); Moxie - George Perrou casual tiki style paintings; and the Mark Woolley Gallery 128 NE Russell; possibly some Mississippi Street spots.

May 3 Westside Art Openings

Photographs and Video by Dinh Q. Lê

The most potentially engaging opening this evening are the works of Dinh Q. Lê. Born in Viet Nam in 1968, Lê's psychological landscape of the Vietnam War was constructed ex post facto by American popular films and journalists' war photographs. He emigrated to the US at a young age and immersed himself in the school art library. There he found the photographs in art books allowed direct experience without language barriers. Attracted to photography, he sliced photographic prints of the Vietnam experience as distilled by Hollywood and the press and wove the visual samples together. In this period, he worked with iconic war images such as the photograph of an execution on the street, children napalmed, and stills from The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, Born on the 4th of July and The Quiet American. Later Lê used the same technique with samples of Buddhist iconography in a series "The Commodification of Buddhism".

Vietnam is changing rapidly as manufacturing shifts there from China. Lê's current work adds to his weavings the bright imagery of consumer brands and disposable packaging flooding his country.

He also shows a two channel video piece "From Father to Son: A Rite of Passage", closely matching action between Vietnam War films Platoon, staring Charlie Sheen; and Apocalypse Now, staring Martin Sheen. The multi dimensional and generational parallels between the unspeakably brutal Belgian colonialism in the Congo, the disaster of the Vietnam War, blind self destruction, moral crux and Iraq are inescapable.*

Lê's work is in the permanent collection of the NY and SF Museums of Modern Art, LACMA and the Norton Family Collection. He has shown extensively in Asia and Europe, at the Asia Society and the Venice Bienniale.

On Saturday, Lê and art historian Moira Roth from Mills speak at 11AM. Between 1 and 5PM Lê shows a three channel video "The Farmers and the Helicopters" juxtaposing the dreams of self taught mechanics who build their own helicopter for humanitarian aims and historical war helicopter footage.

www.elizabethleach.com 417 NW 9th

*Filmmaker Oliver Stone resented that privilege bought deferments from the Vietnam-era military draft (Cheney, Bush), so he dropped out of Yale to enlist in the Army at age 21. He served in Vietnam in front line combat, wounded twice. Stone's resulting film Platoon was lauded by journalist Halberstam as "painfully realistic".

Photographs of Tourism Lost and Found

Quality Pictures overlaps J Bennett Fitts "No Lifeguard on Duty", images of sadly abandonded motel swimming pools, with Stuart Hawkins "Customs", "Appearing In" and video "Souvenir". Hawkins lives in Nepal where she stages images juxtaposing ironic elements and the practical landscape of a developing country. The post ironic work is energetic and a touchpoint for contemplating tourism's impact on the social landscape. In Souvenir, Hawkins treks Nepal, ever the tourist seeking to find the last Nepali untouched by Western culture.

Quality Pictures www.qpca.com 916 NW Hoyt

Stumptown

Sculptor, painter and installationist Marty Schnapf shows at Stumptown downtown. Schnapf last showed large paintings there themed on landmine explosions. He has worked extensively with Monster Squad creating environments for their modern dance works. Stumpown 126 SW 3rd

PNCA

PNCA shows "Portland Collects" and a juried show of art made by the school's students. The value of "Collects" is that it demonstrates that key collectors here are able to take aesthetic risks. Next year, PNCA launches their MFA program. Several of the students in the program chose PNCA over top art schools elsewhere. www.pnca.edu NW Johnson and 13th

Real Superheros

P:ear kids this month have worked with duct tape collage artist Mona Superhero. Her graphic work references pop culture and Pop Art, with an aesthetic feel of the 1970's and 1980's. www.pearmentor.org 809 SW Alder


Bright and Odd

PDX Window Project shows bright constructions of spray foam by Midori Hirose. See it 24x7. www.pdxcontemporaryart.com 925 NW Flanders Street

If you are out, the Everett Lofts and Compound are recommended. Trish Grantham shows at Genuine Imitation.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Yang and Yin. After heavy dude Le, it gives great joy to discover the things lost so easily, like childlike optimism. That is exactly what you will find in the bold show this month at Valentines.

Valentines shows art by Rose Gibian and Oscar Radon-Kimball.

Gibian "presents an elaborate, whimsical universe of her own invention. Populated with flying cats, costumed animals, and so-called "mixed-up creatures", this world is host to a range of unlikely scenarios: Delirious hippos gorge themselves on landscapes of junk food. Kitty scientists perform experiments in laboratories of gurgling test tubes. Birthday parties are plagued by Raccoon bandits. Rose began making art in preschool, and since then has been extremely prolific, often generating several drawings a day. She produces work in a variety of formats, including paintings, short books, comics, and dioramas."

Radon-Kimbell "is a multimedia artist and writer who has been working in various media for the past 13 years. He has studied filmmaking at the Northwest Film Center and through Project Youth Doc. In 2005, Oskar sold out of many of his comics at the Stumptown Comic Fest. He's worked on many comics for the past five years although he made his first hero, Star Man, when he was six. His main characters are the hero, Sock Man and his witty assistant, Bootie. Currently he is writing a novel called Gemelle. He enjoys reading, writing, myspace, and awesome."

Best thing: Rose is 8 and Oscar 13. Don't lose that youthful enthusiasm!

Valentines 232 SW Ankeny Kids until 9.