Thirty! Shows are where you can buy art for a beautifully reasonable price. The first show was Thirty. This show is Thirty-One. That means the art is priced at 31 dollars!
Thirty! is sort of a cross between Zeffrey Throwell's old Alphabet Dress and Meeting People at Brad Adkins'-Chris Buckingham's Charm Bracelet. With Alphabet Dress, in roving locations, Zeffery and Jessica Sullivan provided artists an opportunity to clear out their studios, offering the art at very reasonable prices, in an informal bands and beer meetup. Meeting People was a dizzying grid of 4 inch square panels by about 500 artists, just about everyone in Portland in 2001. Presaging the social practices movement, each person entering the space was greeted by shaking hands and introducing themselves to the person entering before them.
Artist Flora Bowley organized the first Thirty! in November with 900 pieces. This show has 31 artists, painting 31 pieces each, in 31 days. That's 961 pieces. 930 are 7 inches square and are sold on a first come basis for a fixed price of $31 CASH. The remaining 31 paintings are 20 inches square and are auctioned in a silent auction starting at a price of $31 and ending at 9PM sharp. Cash too.
All this is explained clearly on the project web site Thirtyshows. The artists participating are: Alisha Wessler, Anna Todaro, Brett Bowers, Carrie Hardison, Chris Biegun, Chris Burtch, Cvita Mamic, Elizabeth Schuppe, Emily Katz, Erika Lee Sears, Guenevere Schwien, Jamee Linton, Jennifer Mercede, Jeremy Okai Davis, Julia Skerry, Kelly Neidiggity, Laura James, Lynn Yarne, Marshall Leggett, Mark James Gunderson, Melissa Wenzel, Mike McGovern, Randall David Tipton, Samantha Hodgson, Sarah Goodnough, Seth Neefus, Tamara English, Terrence Gasca, Theresa Andreas-O'Leary, Will Bruno and Zach Tobias.
Samples of their work and their statements may be seen on the Thirty! website.
The show opens for preview 3PM Friday. At 6:45PM the gallery will be cleared and those with keen desire can form a line outside. From 7PM-10 the works may be purchased. Musicians Cristina Orbe and Canary Sing perform and Dragonfly Chai provides complementary chai.
Sunday 6PM-8 the show will be open for the last pieces at $31.
So this is your homework. Put $31 in an envelope. Look around your living space for a 7x7 void. Scan the artists on the Thirty! website. Fall in love, or at least like. Stop by before 6:45 and pick a few alternates - someone may have the same desires. Get in line. Buy some art. Bask in music and chai and your excellent choice. Put it on the wall. Tell your friends.
At yoga studio OM Traditional Arts. 14 NE 10th (x Burnside)
Friday 3PM-6:45 Preview. 7PM-10 Sale. 6PM-9 Silent Auction
Sunday 6PM-8 Last Sales
All sales cash.
Admission Free
Portland is home to the Rock and Roll Camp for Girls. The program has been so successful that it is spawning instances in other cities, including in Europe, and soon, South America. It is also so successful that there is a waiting list. The waiting list was too long for one girl, so an 8 year old and her mom started the fashion camp in 2006. It operates in Portland and Los Angeles.
Fashion is communication of identity, aka personal brand, at a distance. Though there have been established wedding designers in Portland, the recent independent creative fashion design movement in Portland began with Kate Towers and Holly Stalder's Seaplane outpost on Belmont. Representing locally adapted microdesigners, Seaplane launched the Portland fashion renaissance. Independent fashion is an important Portland creative vector and that is why it's noted here.
Children are brilliant. Often they are bored. Schools fail more often than not beyond basics. Creative programs engage childrens' brilliance, adapting it to each unique individual. Children are capable of much more than they usually achieve absent challenges. Think back on your own experience.
The Fashion Camp program includes illustration, fabric, sewing, the history of clothing design, silk screen and stencils, reconstructing old clothes, patterns and sizes as well as how to do a photo shoot.
The result of all this is the Fashion Camp fashion show tonight. The show mixes designs on the runway by the camp and some of Portland's brightest designers including Holly Stalder, Kate Towers, Elizabeth Rohloff, Luxury Jones, Frocky Jack Morgan, Sarah Seven and Elizabeth Dye.
The event takes place Friday in the Melody Ballroom, 615 SE Alder. 7PM $10 Advance, $12 door. Under 16 $3
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
July 31 Urban Illustration at Goodfoot and Alberta Stroll
Invision is a book series collecting Portland urban illustrators published by Another Sky Press. Invision1 comprised artists Kendra Binney, Ryan Bodiroga, Paul Fujita, Chris Haberman, Scott Wayne Indiana, Tim Karpinski, Tom Keating, Charlie Alan Kraft, Ashley Montague, Dan Ness, Jesse Reno & Keith Rosson.
Invision2 has artists Erik Abel, Ashley Anson, Damon Ayers, Jason Brown, Michael Fields, Justin Gorman, Jason Graham, Michael Edward McGovern, Russel Short, David Stein, Alisha Wessler & Eric Wixon.
Tonight Goodfoot holds a book release event for Invision2 with Invision1+2 artists filling the walls with full size artwork.
At Goodfoot 2845 SE Stark 5PM-11 Free
The beautiful, or at least entertaining, madness that is Last Thursday happens on NE Alberta Street tonight. Fierce friendly competition for prime spaces results in early arrivals by the artists and craftspeople. Then they are packing up earlier which means that for seeing street art-craft arrive early.
Office has a show, QWERTY, inspired by artists' Tony Secolo and Jennifer Doheny's obsession with typewriters! They once were a big thing. Office, by the way, is a place where you can get one. At OfficePDX. 2204 NE Alberta 21+ 6PM-9 Free
Invision2 has artists Erik Abel, Ashley Anson, Damon Ayers, Jason Brown, Michael Fields, Justin Gorman, Jason Graham, Michael Edward McGovern, Russel Short, David Stein, Alisha Wessler & Eric Wixon.
Tonight Goodfoot holds a book release event for Invision2 with Invision1+2 artists filling the walls with full size artwork.
At Goodfoot 2845 SE Stark 5PM-11 Free
The beautiful, or at least entertaining, madness that is Last Thursday happens on NE Alberta Street tonight. Fierce friendly competition for prime spaces results in early arrivals by the artists and craftspeople. Then they are packing up earlier which means that for seeing street art-craft arrive early.
Office has a show, QWERTY, inspired by artists' Tony Secolo and Jennifer Doheny's obsession with typewriters! They once were a big thing. Office, by the way, is a place where you can get one. At OfficePDX. 2204 NE Alberta 21+ 6PM-9 Free
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
July 26 Water in the Desert (+ Workshop July 25)
My interest in butoh is well known. There are yearly butoh festivals in San Francisco and New York, regular performances in Seattle, a concentration in Germany and scattered outposts like Hawaii, Vancouver, Chicago, London and elsewhere. Tokyo-Yokohama is still a center. Portland had events or workshops about every other year, but that is changing with the emergence of a few teachers here and a new studio at Disjecta.
The Water in the Desert Festival channels ritual and ecopsychology through butoh inspired by Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The event takes place in Peninsula Park's original Portland rose garden.
There are stage performances from 1PM-6:30. At 1:00PM - M.One, spoken word/trip hop/electronica; 2:15 - The World’s Greatest Ghosts, power pop; 3:15 - Miriam Burke: Retna Pamudya, javanese court dance; 3:30 - TeetH: Rash, contemporary dance/performance; 4:15 - a zombie rock opera; 5:30 - Adam Hurst with Dominique Garcia, cello/vocals/guitar.
All afternoon there are children's events, face painting, juggling, clowning, bubbles and origami.
At 6:30PM there is a ritual procession to the theater space in the park. It's a time to meditate on water, beautiful landscape and our part in it.
At 7PM butoh artists Harupin-Ha perform. Koichi Tamano worked with butoh's founder Hijikata between 1965 and 1972. Hijikata completed his early period in 1968 with the seminal performance Revolt of the Flesh. Meeting artist Yoko Ashikawa in 1966, he began the second phase, post 1968, focused on butoh images of the child and soft movements, in which the body is imagined to be supported by invisible strings, allowing it to move without effort. This produced a more sublime movement completely different from his early shocking, grotesque and risky phase. By 1972, with Hijikata's encouragement, many of his students created their own companies, such as Dairakudakan, and Tamano's Harupin-ha. In 1978 Koichi moved to Berkeley, with his performance partner and wife Hiroko, who had worked with Hijikata's all woman unit, Hakutobo. In the Bay Area they ran the legendary Country Station sushi restaurant in the Mission. (They have since relocated to Noe with a much more low key Tamasei Sushi) Many Harupin-ha performances include a dancer performing in a two meter clear plastic bubble, rolling at the performer walks. It is extremely rare to see performers here with direct connection to butoh's founder, especially bridging his critical artistic periods.
At 7:30PM, a performance inspired A Midsummer Night's Dream by the festival's creator, Mizu Desierto, begins in the park's rose gardens. Mizu studied with the Tamanos, butoh's cofounder, Kazuo Ohno and Mexican shamanist butoh artist, Diego Pinon. Ohno is known for his compassionate humanist gestalt and works primarily with images of birth, death, the mother, babies and the flower. Pinon is known for awakening movement based on psychodrama drawn from each dancer's own experiences. Mizu excels in creating performances involving multiple dancers with fantastic surreal costuming. She splits her time between Portland's forests and Arizona's deserts, drawing inspiration from each landscape equally. Mizu Desierto is water desert translated to Japanese.
All this is completely free. The evening performances should not be missed.
The Tamanos teach a participatory workshop Friday July 25 from 1PM-5. No experience is necessary, come ready to move. Recommended and extremely reasonably priced. Details here.
At Penninsula Park, corner of N Albina and Rosa Parks Way. 1PM-10ish. Free
The Water in the Desert Festival channels ritual and ecopsychology through butoh inspired by Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The event takes place in Peninsula Park's original Portland rose garden.
There are stage performances from 1PM-6:30. At 1:00PM - M.One, spoken word/trip hop/electronica; 2:15 - The World’s Greatest Ghosts, power pop; 3:15 - Miriam Burke: Retna Pamudya, javanese court dance; 3:30 - TeetH: Rash, contemporary dance/performance; 4:15 - a zombie rock opera; 5:30 - Adam Hurst with Dominique Garcia, cello/vocals/guitar.
All afternoon there are children's events, face painting, juggling, clowning, bubbles and origami.
At 6:30PM there is a ritual procession to the theater space in the park. It's a time to meditate on water, beautiful landscape and our part in it.
At 7PM butoh artists Harupin-Ha perform. Koichi Tamano worked with butoh's founder Hijikata between 1965 and 1972. Hijikata completed his early period in 1968 with the seminal performance Revolt of the Flesh. Meeting artist Yoko Ashikawa in 1966, he began the second phase, post 1968, focused on butoh images of the child and soft movements, in which the body is imagined to be supported by invisible strings, allowing it to move without effort. This produced a more sublime movement completely different from his early shocking, grotesque and risky phase. By 1972, with Hijikata's encouragement, many of his students created their own companies, such as Dairakudakan, and Tamano's Harupin-ha. In 1978 Koichi moved to Berkeley, with his performance partner and wife Hiroko, who had worked with Hijikata's all woman unit, Hakutobo. In the Bay Area they ran the legendary Country Station sushi restaurant in the Mission. (They have since relocated to Noe with a much more low key Tamasei Sushi) Many Harupin-ha performances include a dancer performing in a two meter clear plastic bubble, rolling at the performer walks. It is extremely rare to see performers here with direct connection to butoh's founder, especially bridging his critical artistic periods.
At 7:30PM, a performance inspired A Midsummer Night's Dream by the festival's creator, Mizu Desierto, begins in the park's rose gardens. Mizu studied with the Tamanos, butoh's cofounder, Kazuo Ohno and Mexican shamanist butoh artist, Diego Pinon. Ohno is known for his compassionate humanist gestalt and works primarily with images of birth, death, the mother, babies and the flower. Pinon is known for awakening movement based on psychodrama drawn from each dancer's own experiences. Mizu excels in creating performances involving multiple dancers with fantastic surreal costuming. She splits her time between Portland's forests and Arizona's deserts, drawing inspiration from each landscape equally. Mizu Desierto is water desert translated to Japanese.
All this is completely free. The evening performances should not be missed.
The Tamanos teach a participatory workshop Friday July 25 from 1PM-5. No experience is necessary, come ready to move. Recommended and extremely reasonably priced. Details here.
At Penninsula Park, corner of N Albina and Rosa Parks Way. 1PM-10ish. Free
July 25 Art and Revenge of Zombies
The Art Museum is currently showing room size installations and agglomerations by five artists selected for the first Contemporary Northwest Art Awards. And they are having a party. It's free, but you need to get tickets in advance. It's probably easiest to just go to the Museum or you can use this link. The party is 6PM-9. Free
Kabuki is a traditional Japanese theater style dating from the 17th century. Very formal. It would be very unusual to see in Portland. Tonight though, students at Portland State perform The Medicine Peddler (Uirôuri) written in 1718 by Ichikawa Danjûrô. The students studied with a master Kabuki teacher and perform an English version by noted Portland State professor and expert translator Larry Kominz. In the play, a samurai attends a new year's banquet in disguise to exact revenge on the man who murdered his father. The play will be performed at Imago Theater, 17 SE 8th. The theater is small, so early arrival is recommended, especially as the performance is free. 8PM Free is good.
In Portland the zombies are definitely winning over the ninjas. And notwithstanding a strong representation by the Samurai across the river, today, or tonight rather, will be the day for night of the zombie. It starts at the Everett Station Lofts at 7PM. Gather in full zombie persona, or be transformed by the expert zombification team. At 8, the zombies begin a march through downtown with the undead marching band. Ultimately converging at Dantes, the fun begins. There is a performance of a zombie rock opera, something about mad scientists and the destruction of the universe, sort of Halloween channeled through the lens of a junior high play. An earlier undead version may be seen on this web clip beginning about half way through. The Living Dead Girlz perform. Then it is zombie burlesque from Beaverton. Finally the dada DJ's from Chickenhed turn it into an undead dance party! Everett Lofts 7PM-8. Dante's 9ish. $10 for zombies, $15 for normal people.
Kabuki is a traditional Japanese theater style dating from the 17th century. Very formal. It would be very unusual to see in Portland. Tonight though, students at Portland State perform The Medicine Peddler (Uirôuri) written in 1718 by Ichikawa Danjûrô. The students studied with a master Kabuki teacher and perform an English version by noted Portland State professor and expert translator Larry Kominz. In the play, a samurai attends a new year's banquet in disguise to exact revenge on the man who murdered his father. The play will be performed at Imago Theater, 17 SE 8th. The theater is small, so early arrival is recommended, especially as the performance is free. 8PM Free is good.
In Portland the zombies are definitely winning over the ninjas. And notwithstanding a strong representation by the Samurai across the river, today, or tonight rather, will be the day for night of the zombie. It starts at the Everett Station Lofts at 7PM. Gather in full zombie persona, or be transformed by the expert zombification team. At 8, the zombies begin a march through downtown with the undead marching band. Ultimately converging at Dantes, the fun begins. There is a performance of a zombie rock opera, something about mad scientists and the destruction of the universe, sort of Halloween channeled through the lens of a junior high play. An earlier undead version may be seen on this web clip beginning about half way through. The Living Dead Girlz perform. Then it is zombie burlesque from Beaverton. Finally the dada DJ's from Chickenhed turn it into an undead dance party! Everett Lofts 7PM-8. Dante's 9ish. $10 for zombies, $15 for normal people.
Monday, July 21, 2008
July 21,22; August 4,16,20 Volunteer for Free (stuff)
PICA's TBA festival runs on volunteers. The prizes are free tickets to events or an E-ticket pass. July 21 and 22, they need demolition, construction and cleanup people at a vacant building to be used for late night performances and the club. It is the building where NE Broadway and Weidler split, the old Multicraft Plastics building, 240 North Broadway. Bring workboots, gloves, and any other body protection gear you need. 10-5 each day.
The regular volunteer sign up meetings for all tasks are at PNCA August 4, 5:00PM; August 16, 1:00PM; August 20, 5:00PM. For information phone 503-242-1419 x236.
The regular volunteer sign up meetings for all tasks are at PNCA August 4, 5:00PM; August 16, 1:00PM; August 20, 5:00PM. For information phone 503-242-1419 x236.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
July 20 Art from Maker to Collector
Money is more distinguished by its flow than its existence. Art making and viewing are a flow too, in which the passions of the artist is stored in the work, and later, a viewer experiences something moving as a result. Gallerist Erik Schneider of Quality Pictures speaks this morning to artists and collectors about some of the mechanics of that flow involving money which might be good to know.
He will speak of gallery representation and pricing as well as art as an investment. He will discuss the great chain of being in the art world's museums, galleries and collectors. To make it real, examples of the experience of local and national artists, and where their work sells, and resells will be discussed.
This is a free talk at Newspace Center for Photography, and Erik is bringing some Voodoo Donuts to fuel the discussion. Poetic. www.newspacephoto.org 1632 SE 10th. 11AM Free
He will speak of gallery representation and pricing as well as art as an investment. He will discuss the great chain of being in the art world's museums, galleries and collectors. To make it real, examples of the experience of local and national artists, and where their work sells, and resells will be discussed.
This is a free talk at Newspace Center for Photography, and Erik is bringing some Voodoo Donuts to fuel the discussion. Poetic. www.newspacephoto.org 1632 SE 10th. 11AM Free
July 19 Being Outdoors in Midsummer
The Grass Hut Camp continues, in which you can earn patches for having fun. Today beginning at the store at 10AM it's bike fun. Tour the Springwater trail (accessible right from the Burnside Bridge via the Eastbank Esplanade!) This trip includes visiting some mad old buildings along the way, hunting for nutria, a stop at an old school hobby shop in Oregon City and swimming at Elk Rock Island. Meet up at the store 10AM bring water, swim gear and go. www.grasshutcorp.com 10AM Free
The Lone Fir Cemetery is the spooky one at the corner of Morrison and SE 20th. Tonight, to encourage new visitors there are musicians and costumed characters wandering about. 5PM-8 Free
Absent the superpower of flying, tonight is a night of choices. Another is an unusual event at Reed College. Local multi-artist Sarah Dougher has composed a choral work based on the works of poet Robert Duncan and artist Jess, subject of the Reed Coolley Gallery exhibit. Both artist and poet were part of the San Francisco beat movement. Dougher's work will be performed by the Flash Choir in the Elliot Chapel which will be followed by a lecture, Eye of the Ear: Jess and the Poets, by Steve Dickison, director of the Poetry Center and American Poetry Archives at San Francisco State University. Musician Tim Duroche also plays in the library, adjacent to the gallery. www.reed.edu 7PM Free
The South Waterfront has an art program. Tonight sculptor-installationist Bill Will has teamed with curator-choreographer Linda Johnson to stage a modern dance performance amid a sea of gently bending poles streaming flags of old VHS video tape. A large group of Portland modern dancers are the movers. Gather about 8, bring a picnic, watch it all unfold under a rising moon. Performers include Daniel Addy, Katie Arrants, Tracy Broyles, Rebecca Harrison, Tahni Holt, Kathleen Keogh, Eric Nordstrom and Noelle Stiles, Linda Austin, Gregg Bielemeier, Lynde Mah, Margretta Hansen, Lila Hurwitz, Wendy Hambidge, Caroline Oakley and Paul Scheer. Soundscape by Seth Nehil. www.southwaterfront.com/art_and_design/artist. Corner of SW Moody and Curry. Streetcar or bike would be an excellent way to go. 8PM to 10ish Free
Finally Disjecta reopens in Kenton, where the Paul Bunyon statue is, on the light rail. Disjecta has been successful in finding edgier performers than PICA and presenting them at a reasonable price. The new space is renting to artists and includes an excellent dance-performance studio with a wood floor. They have a long term lease too. Disjecta's new visual arts program is curated by guest curators, including this first show, with artists Gordon Barnes, Ryan Burghard, Shelby Davis, Justin Gorman, Dean Spella and Makerlab - Ben Foote, Anselm Hook, Marlin Pohlman and Paige Saez; curated by Igloo Gallery's Damien Gilley. www.disjecta.org 8371 N. Interstate 6PM-9 Free
The Lone Fir Cemetery is the spooky one at the corner of Morrison and SE 20th. Tonight, to encourage new visitors there are musicians and costumed characters wandering about. 5PM-8 Free
Absent the superpower of flying, tonight is a night of choices. Another is an unusual event at Reed College. Local multi-artist Sarah Dougher has composed a choral work based on the works of poet Robert Duncan and artist Jess, subject of the Reed Coolley Gallery exhibit. Both artist and poet were part of the San Francisco beat movement. Dougher's work will be performed by the Flash Choir in the Elliot Chapel which will be followed by a lecture, Eye of the Ear: Jess and the Poets, by Steve Dickison, director of the Poetry Center and American Poetry Archives at San Francisco State University. Musician Tim Duroche also plays in the library, adjacent to the gallery. www.reed.edu 7PM Free
The South Waterfront has an art program. Tonight sculptor-installationist Bill Will has teamed with curator-choreographer Linda Johnson to stage a modern dance performance amid a sea of gently bending poles streaming flags of old VHS video tape. A large group of Portland modern dancers are the movers. Gather about 8, bring a picnic, watch it all unfold under a rising moon. Performers include Daniel Addy, Katie Arrants, Tracy Broyles, Rebecca Harrison, Tahni Holt, Kathleen Keogh, Eric Nordstrom and Noelle Stiles, Linda Austin, Gregg Bielemeier, Lynde Mah, Margretta Hansen, Lila Hurwitz, Wendy Hambidge, Caroline Oakley and Paul Scheer. Soundscape by Seth Nehil. www.southwaterfront.com/art_and_design/artist. Corner of SW Moody and Curry. Streetcar or bike would be an excellent way to go. 8PM to 10ish Free
Finally Disjecta reopens in Kenton, where the Paul Bunyon statue is, on the light rail. Disjecta has been successful in finding edgier performers than PICA and presenting them at a reasonable price. The new space is renting to artists and includes an excellent dance-performance studio with a wood floor. They have a long term lease too. Disjecta's new visual arts program is curated by guest curators, including this first show, with artists Gordon Barnes, Ryan Burghard, Shelby Davis, Justin Gorman, Dean Spella and Makerlab - Ben Foote, Anselm Hook, Marlin Pohlman and Paige Saez; curated by Igloo Gallery's Damien Gilley. www.disjecta.org 8371 N. Interstate 6PM-9 Free
Thursday, July 10, 2008
July 16 Great Architects Can Design Affordable Housing Too
Usonian Homes were Frank Lloyd Wright's take on affordable single family housing. Omitting the superfluous basement and attic, paring trim to a minimum, combining the kitchen with the living space, constructed of concrete block, and even designed to be built by the homeowner, they were perfectly modern.
They still look good.
Wright envisioned them enabling a suburban landscape built upon the expanded use of personal motor vehicles. The designs may have influenced Walter Gropius, famed Bauhaus director and architect, who relocated to America as the Bauhaus was closed by the Nazi government, in his design of the American ranch house. Wright was right about automobiles until now, but his use of passive solar in the designs is sustainable today.
Beginning in 1936, in a poor economy, about 50 were built, including the Gordon House, designed in 1957, two years before Wright's death, and completed in 1964. The home was moved to the Oregon Garden, near Silverton, when new owners of its prime Willamette River-fronting lot proposed demolishing it. Today it is open to the public for a small fee.
I have seen a Usonian House, though not this one. They are a little woolly around the edges with curved molding put to unexpected modern use as in the Heywood-Wakefield designs which bridge the streamline movement to the international movement of the Bauhaus' Mies. But I'd live in one insulated to current practice in a minute.
Tonight Larry Wooden, writer and historian will speak of the house, Wright and the Usonian movement. Wooden is author of a new book about the house and its restoration, "The Gordon House: A Moving Experience".
It's so apropos that the presentation is organized by Design Within Reach as part of their Designs on Portland series. Design Within Reach www.dwr.com. Northwest Everett and 12th Doors 6PM, talk 6:30 Free
They still look good.
Wright envisioned them enabling a suburban landscape built upon the expanded use of personal motor vehicles. The designs may have influenced Walter Gropius, famed Bauhaus director and architect, who relocated to America as the Bauhaus was closed by the Nazi government, in his design of the American ranch house. Wright was right about automobiles until now, but his use of passive solar in the designs is sustainable today.
Beginning in 1936, in a poor economy, about 50 were built, including the Gordon House, designed in 1957, two years before Wright's death, and completed in 1964. The home was moved to the Oregon Garden, near Silverton, when new owners of its prime Willamette River-fronting lot proposed demolishing it. Today it is open to the public for a small fee.
I have seen a Usonian House, though not this one. They are a little woolly around the edges with curved molding put to unexpected modern use as in the Heywood-Wakefield designs which bridge the streamline movement to the international movement of the Bauhaus' Mies. But I'd live in one insulated to current practice in a minute.
Tonight Larry Wooden, writer and historian will speak of the house, Wright and the Usonian movement. Wooden is author of a new book about the house and its restoration, "The Gordon House: A Moving Experience".
It's so apropos that the presentation is organized by Design Within Reach as part of their Designs on Portland series. Design Within Reach www.dwr.com. Northwest Everett and 12th Doors 6PM, talk 6:30 Free
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
July 16 Learn to Communicate
My proposal is that the only reality is action. In other words, all the internal states, beliefs, thoughts and whims assume value only when they result in action. I call it getting from what to how. Not every realm of action needs numbers to decide it but some do. That is where Edward Tufte comes in.
Tufte is professor emeritus at Yale in political science, statistics and computer science. He has written several of the most beautiful books on how to present complex numerical data as rich visuals. Only with full data, clearly presented, can good decisions be made, though that is a necessary, but not sufficient, criteria for decision making.
About every 2 years, though he could entirely retire any time, Tufte presents a one day course on his ideas in Portland. Expensive, yes, but the $380 includes $185 of Tufte's cool beautiful books. The course is heavily visual. It includes examples of beautifully made charts, some bad ones for comparison, and some of Tufte's collection of richly illustrated rare 16th century books on astronomy, mathematics and science, like Euclid, Galileo and Newton, shown about the audience by white-gloved assistants.
Central to Tufte's thesis is that people are smart, and presenting a lot of information clearly allows them to make better decisions. Thus Tufte is the enemy of PowerPoint because it templates simplicity. As an example, Tufte reviews the engineer's PowerPoint slides which failed to communicate the danger to the space shuttle Challenger launch. In 1986, Challenger exploded killing all aboard. So yes, PowerPoint can kill.
I have attended Tufte's talks and found them engaging - like the best professors you have ever had. There are plenty of take home messages for graphic designers and anyone who needs to present multidimensional data with the intent it result in action.
At the Portland Art Museum space. All day. Details at www.edwardtufte.com $380 with discounts for group registrations and full time students. Worth it.
Tufte is professor emeritus at Yale in political science, statistics and computer science. He has written several of the most beautiful books on how to present complex numerical data as rich visuals. Only with full data, clearly presented, can good decisions be made, though that is a necessary, but not sufficient, criteria for decision making.
About every 2 years, though he could entirely retire any time, Tufte presents a one day course on his ideas in Portland. Expensive, yes, but the $380 includes $185 of Tufte's cool beautiful books. The course is heavily visual. It includes examples of beautifully made charts, some bad ones for comparison, and some of Tufte's collection of richly illustrated rare 16th century books on astronomy, mathematics and science, like Euclid, Galileo and Newton, shown about the audience by white-gloved assistants.
Central to Tufte's thesis is that people are smart, and presenting a lot of information clearly allows them to make better decisions. Thus Tufte is the enemy of PowerPoint because it templates simplicity. As an example, Tufte reviews the engineer's PowerPoint slides which failed to communicate the danger to the space shuttle Challenger launch. In 1986, Challenger exploded killing all aboard. So yes, PowerPoint can kill.
I have attended Tufte's talks and found them engaging - like the best professors you have ever had. There are plenty of take home messages for graphic designers and anyone who needs to present multidimensional data with the intent it result in action.
At the Portland Art Museum space. All day. Details at www.edwardtufte.com $380 with discounts for group registrations and full time students. Worth it.
July 14 Talk on a Bridge
Portland is a City of Bridges. They are mind bendingly expensive to build though, so they come along as projects rarely. There are as many bicyclists and artists as there are armchair architects in Portland, including myself. So when the possibility of a bridge design comes it seems to attract a frenzy of design speculation. If the Sellwood Bridge does not fall down first, probably the next to be built will be a bridge to carry a future Orange Line MAX to Milwaukie. Its circuitous route passes PSU, winding its way down to the South Waterfront neighborhood, crosses the river, zags back North to OMSI, then travels along the route 99 corridor. The bridge is also slated to carry bikes and peds. No cars.
There is a discussion of that bridge between South Waterfront and OMSI as part of the Bright Spaces series of talks. Lesley Hallick, OHSU Provost and Nancy Stueber, OMSI President speak on the development implications of the bridge and the impact on their respective institutions. The speaker bios are interesting. Dr. Hallick began her career at OHSU as professor of molecular biology and immunology in 1977. Stueber started at OMSI as manager of community events in 1981.
The Bright Lights discussions are a joint venture between Portland Spaces Magazine and the City Club of Portland. Portland Spaces Magazine is helmed by Randy Gragg, photographer, arts writer and writer on city planning and design. The crowd is a smart admixture of distinguished architects, city planners, developers and thinkers. It's where the deciders get their information and network. The event is at Jimmy Mak,s 221 NW 10th 6PM sharp Free
There is a discussion of that bridge between South Waterfront and OMSI as part of the Bright Spaces series of talks. Lesley Hallick, OHSU Provost and Nancy Stueber, OMSI President speak on the development implications of the bridge and the impact on their respective institutions. The speaker bios are interesting. Dr. Hallick began her career at OHSU as professor of molecular biology and immunology in 1977. Stueber started at OMSI as manager of community events in 1981.
The Bright Lights discussions are a joint venture between Portland Spaces Magazine and the City Club of Portland. Portland Spaces Magazine is helmed by Randy Gragg, photographer, arts writer and writer on city planning and design. The crowd is a smart admixture of distinguished architects, city planners, developers and thinkers. It's where the deciders get their information and network. The event is at Jimmy Mak,s 221 NW 10th 6PM sharp Free
July 12 Video and Film Form, Hands On
The Echo Park Filmmobile is working its way North and will be in Portland Saturday. Here is the concept. Can't get to the film center? The film center comes to you. Free! Workshops in Super 8, digital editing and direct animation on a blue biodiesel school bus. They are also screening films.
In the parking lot of resale store ReRun NW 7th and Freemont. Free!
There is a BTA night ride that night too. - Check www.bta4bikes.org
In the parking lot of resale store ReRun NW 7th and Freemont. Free!
There is a BTA night ride that night too. - Check www.bta4bikes.org
July 11-13 Modern Garage Movement
American Garage meme. In tech - Hewlett and Packard (HP), Apple, Google. Bands, of course. More than one painting, sculpture has been made in a garage.
Modern Garage Movement moves the meme into dance. "Dancing anywhere, and all the time."
Anywhere's here include:
Friday, July 11 at Shane's Barn with Woolly Mammoth, Venable All Star Band, Tara Jane O'Neil, Theo Angell, janet pants, Freedom Eagle and David Rafn. 7PM donation please
Directions - take US 30/St Helens Rd. Pass the St. Johns bridge, Pass Linton. After Linton, take the 2nd left, which happens IMMEDIATELY after the sign "Sauvie Island 1 mi". This is Newberry road. Head on up and soon look for cars on right; The Barn is on the right, just down a stone driveway.
Saturday July 12 at Performance Works NW. Performance Works is the OG in FoPo. (They bought and old Romanian Orthodox church and made it into a performance lab 8 years ago in the Foster-Powell neighborhood, before it was "discovered")
There is a workshop 12PM-4 at Performance Works - check their website for the details. Later in the evening everyone performs at Voleur 111 SW Ash. 9PM $5 Later later they are at Ron's House 4050 N. Michigan 11PM $5
Sunday July 13 they are moving at Rex Hill Vineyards 30835 N Hwy 99W in Newberg. 2PM $10 Also little Valentine's later with Woolly Mammoth, Tara Jane O'Neil, Theo Angell and janet pants. 232 SW Ankeny 8PM pass the hat $
Modern Garage Movement moves the meme into dance. "Dancing anywhere, and all the time."
Anywhere's here include:
Friday, July 11 at Shane's Barn with Woolly Mammoth, Venable All Star Band, Tara Jane O'Neil, Theo Angell, janet pants, Freedom Eagle and David Rafn. 7PM donation please
Directions - take US 30/St Helens Rd. Pass the St. Johns bridge, Pass Linton. After Linton, take the 2nd left, which happens IMMEDIATELY after the sign "Sauvie Island 1 mi". This is Newberry road. Head on up and soon look for cars on right; The Barn is on the right, just down a stone driveway.
Saturday July 12 at Performance Works NW. Performance Works is the OG in FoPo. (They bought and old Romanian Orthodox church and made it into a performance lab 8 years ago in the Foster-Powell neighborhood, before it was "discovered")
There is a workshop 12PM-4 at Performance Works - check their website for the details. Later in the evening everyone performs at Voleur 111 SW Ash. 9PM $5 Later later they are at Ron's House 4050 N. Michigan 11PM $5
Sunday July 13 they are moving at Rex Hill Vineyards 30835 N Hwy 99W in Newberg. 2PM $10 Also little Valentine's later with Woolly Mammoth, Tara Jane O'Neil, Theo Angell and janet pants. 232 SW Ankeny 8PM pass the hat $
July 11 Second First Friday Eastside Art Openings
Gallery Homeland is presenting an interesting concept - a show themed Universal Grammar. From organizers Thin Ice, Oakland/NYC: "Universal Grammar finds its meaning in the fundamental. Inspired by Noam Chomsky's notion that all languages have a common structural basis, we, the Thin Ice Collective have come together with a selection of hand-picked artists as one mind to test the limits of communication and reveal new discursive possibilities through various media. Each artist has explored the underpinnings of what it means to take part in a dialog, not only in an intimate context, but on a broader social plateau.
Some of the questions that we are asking are: What does it truly mean to be understood by someone else? What magnetism or repulsion occurs in the interstitial moment of dialog that creates or negates understanding? Have visual cues become a sufficient enough representation of the common ethos to make the building blocks of
communication, i.e., words, superfluous in today's image-heavy culture?"
Artists included in this meta dialog are Serena Cole, Uri Korn, Billy Kroft, Hilary Pecis, Catherine Ryan, Sham Saenz, Zefrey Throwell, Tracy Timmins, Joe Brook, Tara Lisa Foley, Keba Konte, Marty Lund, Brion Nuda Rosch, Andrew Schoultz and Brent Wick.
Local epic favs Tu Fawning and The Elder and The Infant perform. At Gallery Homeland www.galleryhomeland.org 2505 SE 11th 6PM-9 Free
Newspace Photo presents its annual international juried exhibition with TJ Norris as the curator. Photographers include: John Abbott, Daniel Barron, Steve Brand, Polly Chandler, Taylor Deupree, Odette England, Garvan Gallagher, Klaus E. Gerdes, Amro Hamzawi, Megan Holmes, David Johnson, Dina Kantor, George Kelly, Joshua Kim, Justin James King, Miranda Lehman, Marne Lucas, Alia Malley, Jackson Nichols, Andrew O'Brien, Peter Prusinowski, Stan Raucher, Susan Ressler, Ali Richards, Dawn Roe, John Ruggieri, Jasper Sanidad, Barry Shapiro, Jessica Skloven, Skoltz Kolgen, John Sloan, Travis Southworth, Dale Strouse, Lori Triburgo, Bryan Wolf, Tamsen Wotjanowski and AJ Zelada. At Newspace Photo www.newspacephoto.org 1632 SE 10th Free
Beauty in Hindsight by Robert Mars is at Guestroom Gallery www.guestroomgallery.com 4114 N Vancouver 6PM-9 Free
In Seattle "Oceanic: nautical adventures and underwater realms" opens with artists Liz Adams, Kendra Binney, Doug Boehm, Amy Earles, Sarajo Frieden, Ghostpatrol, Emaily Keyishian, The Black Apple, Melissa Moss, Ninjagirl, Emma Overman and Kelly Vivanco. It's at Suite 100 Gallery suite100gallery.com 2222 2nd Ave, Seattle. 206-956-3900. 6PM-10
Some of the questions that we are asking are: What does it truly mean to be understood by someone else? What magnetism or repulsion occurs in the interstitial moment of dialog that creates or negates understanding? Have visual cues become a sufficient enough representation of the common ethos to make the building blocks of
communication, i.e., words, superfluous in today's image-heavy culture?"
Artists included in this meta dialog are Serena Cole, Uri Korn, Billy Kroft, Hilary Pecis, Catherine Ryan, Sham Saenz, Zefrey Throwell, Tracy Timmins, Joe Brook, Tara Lisa Foley, Keba Konte, Marty Lund, Brion Nuda Rosch, Andrew Schoultz and Brent Wick.
Local epic favs Tu Fawning and The Elder and The Infant perform. At Gallery Homeland www.galleryhomeland.org 2505 SE 11th 6PM-9 Free
Newspace Photo presents its annual international juried exhibition with TJ Norris as the curator. Photographers include: John Abbott, Daniel Barron, Steve Brand, Polly Chandler, Taylor Deupree, Odette England, Garvan Gallagher, Klaus E. Gerdes, Amro Hamzawi, Megan Holmes, David Johnson, Dina Kantor, George Kelly, Joshua Kim, Justin James King, Miranda Lehman, Marne Lucas, Alia Malley, Jackson Nichols, Andrew O'Brien, Peter Prusinowski, Stan Raucher, Susan Ressler, Ali Richards, Dawn Roe, John Ruggieri, Jasper Sanidad, Barry Shapiro, Jessica Skloven, Skoltz Kolgen, John Sloan, Travis Southworth, Dale Strouse, Lori Triburgo, Bryan Wolf, Tamsen Wotjanowski and AJ Zelada. At Newspace Photo www.newspacephoto.org 1632 SE 10th Free
Beauty in Hindsight by Robert Mars is at Guestroom Gallery www.guestroomgallery.com 4114 N Vancouver 6PM-9 Free
In Seattle "Oceanic: nautical adventures and underwater realms" opens with artists Liz Adams, Kendra Binney, Doug Boehm, Amy Earles, Sarajo Frieden, Ghostpatrol, Emaily Keyishian, The Black Apple, Melissa Moss, Ninjagirl, Emma Overman and Kelly Vivanco. It's at Suite 100 Gallery suite100gallery.com 2222 2nd Ave, Seattle. 206-956-3900. 6PM-10
July 8 Your Input on Legal Artist Live-Work Space
As Dave Hickey noted in a Portland talk, art evolves more quickly than the culture at large because individual artist-innovators communicate continuously, sharing ideas and reactions to seeing work, and work making, up close, in person
Critical to the process are dense live-work spaces integrating raw studio space with living, at minimal cost, as artists are often the working poor. New construction costs place rental of that space in the $3+ per square foot per month range. Artists operate in the $1 and below range, ideally sub 50 cents per square foot per month. Rising energy prices add an additional burden to heat it, from $.10 on up, and that is rising.
You would think if someone wanted to just live in a warehouse they could, but seismic upgrades in preparation for "the big one", fire regulation and building codes, all chosen city of Portland policy, work against it. While the City does not have infinite enforcement resources and illegal spaces sometime exist as chimeric Brigadoons for a time, there is more demand than supply and City policy is part of the reason.
There are existence models though. ArtspaceUSA is a non profit developer. Their non profit structure saves the developer profit, allows corporations, foundations and governmental entities to donate and allows them access to some government programs and additional offsets such as system development charges, otherwise unavailable to private developers.
ArtspaceUSA developed the Everett Station Lofts and the Toshiro Kaplan Lofts in Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood. No one could argue against the positive impact that the Everett Lofts, and, in particular, the storefront galleries, have had on visual arts in Portland. The Toshiro Kaplan Lofts have a different model, with market rate storefronts, including established contemporary galleries, such as the G Gibson Gallery, Seattle's leading photography gallery (which added painting with Maija Febig, no stranger to this blog, after moving into its new space.) The Toshiro Kaplan Lofts also host storefronts for some leading Seattle non profit galleries such as the long running coop SOIL and the respected Platform.
Portland's population of artists is making a name for itself and there is a continual flow of artists between Portland and US art centers. Where will they make the work that puts them, and Portland, on the international art map?
Part of the process for doing so is a public discussion tonight.
Panelists Sam Adams, Portland City Commissioner and Mayor Elect; Brad Malsin, Beam Development, Milepost 5; Brian Wannamaker, Falcon Artist Community (Albina and Killingsworth); Ben Kaiser, Project X; TJ Norris, Artist and Jenene Nagy, Artist join moderator Gavin Shetler, Director of the Portland Art Center and Program Manager for Milepost 5 are here to speak and listen.
They would like to hear of your experiences and needs.
The discussion is at Milepost 5, a live work development by Maslin, walking distance to the 82nd light rail stop. www.milepostfive.com 7PM-8:30 Free
Critical to the process are dense live-work spaces integrating raw studio space with living, at minimal cost, as artists are often the working poor. New construction costs place rental of that space in the $3+ per square foot per month range. Artists operate in the $1 and below range, ideally sub 50 cents per square foot per month. Rising energy prices add an additional burden to heat it, from $.10 on up, and that is rising.
You would think if someone wanted to just live in a warehouse they could, but seismic upgrades in preparation for "the big one", fire regulation and building codes, all chosen city of Portland policy, work against it. While the City does not have infinite enforcement resources and illegal spaces sometime exist as chimeric Brigadoons for a time, there is more demand than supply and City policy is part of the reason.
There are existence models though. ArtspaceUSA is a non profit developer. Their non profit structure saves the developer profit, allows corporations, foundations and governmental entities to donate and allows them access to some government programs and additional offsets such as system development charges, otherwise unavailable to private developers.
ArtspaceUSA developed the Everett Station Lofts and the Toshiro Kaplan Lofts in Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood. No one could argue against the positive impact that the Everett Lofts, and, in particular, the storefront galleries, have had on visual arts in Portland. The Toshiro Kaplan Lofts have a different model, with market rate storefronts, including established contemporary galleries, such as the G Gibson Gallery, Seattle's leading photography gallery (which added painting with Maija Febig, no stranger to this blog, after moving into its new space.) The Toshiro Kaplan Lofts also host storefronts for some leading Seattle non profit galleries such as the long running coop SOIL and the respected Platform.
Portland's population of artists is making a name for itself and there is a continual flow of artists between Portland and US art centers. Where will they make the work that puts them, and Portland, on the international art map?
Part of the process for doing so is a public discussion tonight.
Panelists Sam Adams, Portland City Commissioner and Mayor Elect; Brad Malsin, Beam Development, Milepost 5; Brian Wannamaker, Falcon Artist Community (Albina and Killingsworth); Ben Kaiser, Project X; TJ Norris, Artist and Jenene Nagy, Artist join moderator Gavin Shetler, Director of the Portland Art Center and Program Manager for Milepost 5 are here to speak and listen.
They would like to hear of your experiences and needs.
The discussion is at Milepost 5, a live work development by Maslin, walking distance to the 82nd light rail stop. www.milepostfive.com 7PM-8:30 Free
July 6 Free Epic Film
Jace Gace is hosting a film series, The Hidden Eye, wrangled by Vu Pham, every 1st and 3rd Sunday. 8PM. Free. Free is good.
The first film is Antonioni's The Passenger, part of his master trio with La Aventura and Blow Up. Italian director Antonioni (1912-2007) was a master of camera movement and color. He has many epic great films worthy of watching bigger than in iPOD format.
In this deliberately slow paced film, a journalist, played by Jack Nicholson in 1975, disillusioned with life, assumes the identity of a random person who dies suddenly in a North African hotel he happens to coinhabit. Following the unknown person's life path, and eluding the frenzied searches of his wife, the character is killed by unknown gunmen in a remote North African hotel. The gunrunner to African liberation movements in the day, whose identity he assumed, dies in a long tracking shot recorded in filmmaking history. In the shot, a camera on a track inside the character's hotel room approaches a bared window, which it passes through, to be transfered to a crane, ultimately returning to the room through the window.
Watch and learn how to break rules. At Jace Gace art, beer, waffles www.jacegace.com 2045 SE Belmont 8PM Free
The first film is Antonioni's The Passenger, part of his master trio with La Aventura and Blow Up. Italian director Antonioni (1912-2007) was a master of camera movement and color. He has many epic great films worthy of watching bigger than in iPOD format.
In this deliberately slow paced film, a journalist, played by Jack Nicholson in 1975, disillusioned with life, assumes the identity of a random person who dies suddenly in a North African hotel he happens to coinhabit. Following the unknown person's life path, and eluding the frenzied searches of his wife, the character is killed by unknown gunmen in a remote North African hotel. The gunrunner to African liberation movements in the day, whose identity he assumed, dies in a long tracking shot recorded in filmmaking history. In the shot, a camera on a track inside the character's hotel room approaches a bared window, which it passes through, to be transfered to a crane, ultimately returning to the room through the window.
Watch and learn how to break rules. At Jace Gace art, beer, waffles www.jacegace.com 2045 SE Belmont 8PM Free
July 5 Camp!
Scrappers Morrison at the Grass Hut is launching nu scouting, art-wise. The childhood constructs in brownie-cub-girl-boy scouting updated. This is the story. Participate in one or more of Scrappers' urb-art-updated adventures and you receive a merit badge-patch to sew-hotmelt onto your sash-trucker hat-skirt-jeans-whatever. The first adventure is Grass Hut Yarn Camp. Following adventures include bike-trip, skate-everywhere, grafing-pasting, and all-sports. Do it and you get a patch! Contact them in advance to scale the patch factory. Various locations. Check-link.
July 4 Independent East Side Represent
The energy of the Declaration of Independence is always relevant to revisit.
Some Eastside spaces are keeping the first Friday opening tradition and these are them.
The Grass Hut presents a group show The Americans. They are honoring the day's energy by opening at noon. Co-showing are daughter-father team Tigerlily and Tim Biskup. At Grass Hut www.grasshutcorp.com 811 E Burnside
Next door at Redux Tim Karpinsky shows drawings. "From a young age I've always been making things. Building forts turned into building skate ramps which lead to building art installations. I love the art making process, from the initial spark of the "idea", the creation to the finished product. Art for me is very personal and everything i make is a direct reflection on my feelings about this world and my struggle and fascination with trying to understand it and find my purpose within it." Redux specializes in reuse driven objects, many functional. www.reduxpdx.com 811 E Burnside
Jace Gace opens Overkill #2. That would be an open hanging of work by any artist who walked in the door while there was space. While some argue that exhibition space in Portland is lacking, the panoply of cafes showing argues against. What may be missing though is an understanding of artist resume building exhibition steps. Whatever. Free and fun. At Jace Gace art, beer, waffles www.jacegace.com 2045 SE Belmont
Some Eastside spaces are keeping the first Friday opening tradition and these are them.
The Grass Hut presents a group show The Americans. They are honoring the day's energy by opening at noon. Co-showing are daughter-father team Tigerlily and Tim Biskup. At Grass Hut www.grasshutcorp.com 811 E Burnside
Next door at Redux Tim Karpinsky shows drawings. "From a young age I've always been making things. Building forts turned into building skate ramps which lead to building art installations. I love the art making process, from the initial spark of the "idea", the creation to the finished product. Art for me is very personal and everything i make is a direct reflection on my feelings about this world and my struggle and fascination with trying to understand it and find my purpose within it." Redux specializes in reuse driven objects, many functional. www.reduxpdx.com 811 E Burnside
Jace Gace opens Overkill #2. That would be an open hanging of work by any artist who walked in the door while there was space. While some argue that exhibition space in Portland is lacking, the panoply of cafes showing argues against. What may be missing though is an understanding of artist resume building exhibition steps. Whatever. Free and fun. At Jace Gace art, beer, waffles www.jacegace.com 2045 SE Belmont
July 3 Westside Art Openings +
Blue Sky shows some of the last prints produced by seminal artist Robert Rauschenberg. For these works, he sampled his own photographs made in China in 1982 and 1985 to produce the 12 prints in the Lotus Series in an edition of 50. Each image repeats a lotus flower image, juxtaposing the waterborne bloom with images of a China which may not still exist.
Robert Rauschenberg is one of the fathers of sampling, video art installation and modern art crossing country borders.
Rauschenberg studied at the experimental Black Mountain College in Asheville, North Carolina, founded by professors opposed to the tenure system and strict subject divisions. It is a model for schools such as Washington's Evergreen. Rauschenberg studied with John Cage (first to use random process to compose music), Buckminster Fuller (environmental inventor, built first geodesic dome there), Merce Cunningham (modern dancer, first to disconnect the music from the movement), Anni and Josef Albers (founders of the Bauhaus, proponents of modern design for all, not just the wealthy [Ikea?], Walter Gropius (architect and designer of the first ranch style home), and many other now famous artists, writers and poets.
Moving to New York City, Rauschenberg worked in painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture. Rauschenberg's sampling of news photographs and combining them presaged Warhol. First he developed a method of lifting printed images from magazines and transferring them to canvas using solvents. Later he used photographic printing to prepare silk screens of news images.
Rauschenberg collaborated with Bell Telephone Research Lab engineers to produce legendary performances at the Armory including "Open Score". In Open Score, two artists played tennis. Wireless microphones in each tennis racket relayed the sound of each stroke to loudspeakers. Each time the ball was hit, one light in the space was turned off until the space was in complete darkness. Then the audience surged onto the court, shown by infrared video cameras only available to the military and Bell Labs at the time. The infrared video was projected (1966!) in real time onto a huge screen. Soon after Rauschenberg founded Experiments in Art and Technology - E.A.T. - with Billy Kluver of Bell Labs to produce more art and technology collaborations. Many chapters of E.A.T. were formed around the US.
Later Rauschenberg founded the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange with the UN. The project promoted peace through art exchange and connections with ordinary people in the Soviet Union, Cuba, China, Tibet, Berlin, Mexico, Venezuela, Japan and Chile. Rauschenberg also untertook projects in India and Malaysia.
Rauschenberg is known for many other firsts in the art world.
In his later years, Rauschenberg has been arranging donations of his work to museums and for charity. We wish the artist, who passed May 12, with paintings active in his Florida studio, the best, sampling and innovating the beyond.
Blue Sky also shows Soldier Portraits by Ellen Susan. Susan references some of the first photographic work, work by Civil War photographers. Using early colloidian chemistry on metal and glass, Susan has captured positive process monochrome portraits of Iraq-era soldiers. Ususally the copywriting award of the month goes to fanciful writing, rather than gravitas. However this month we make an exception for Susan's description of the work:
"This work is a result of my relocation to Savannah, Georgia, which is near two major army installations. I started seeing soldiers in uniform at the grocery store, the gas station, everywhere. I’d never really given soldiers much thought, because I rarely encountered them. I began to read in the local newspaper that many members of the local division were being deployed to Iraq for the third time. Looking into the impossibly fresh, young face of the uniformed kid in front of me at Home Depot and connecting that face to what happens in Iraq was a big shift for me in the way I thought about soldiers.”
“I felt that the the 150 year old colloidion process could be a meaningful way to photograph contemporary soldiers, to provide a counterpoint to the anonymous representations of soldiers seen in newspapers and on television. The necessarily long exposures of this slow process often result in an intensity of gaze that asks the viewer to look longer, and the grainless, highly detailed surface brings out minute details of each individual.”
“In the end, I wanted to produce physically enduring, visually, emotionally arresting images of people who are being sent repeatedly into a war zone with no apparent end in sight.”
At Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org in the Desoto Building, 122 NW 8th. Opening 6PM-9
Susan speaks on her work Saturday, July 5th, at 3PM Free
Municipal Maneuvers is the result of collaboration between artists in PSU's Social Practice program, the Port City Development Center and the Northwest Downs Syndrome Association. Social practices art spans more than socially conscious change work. But that change work is some of the most interesting emotionally charged activity in art. The Port City Development Center (no website yet - just phone 503-236-9515) trains disabled adults for jobs and does contract work for businesses and organizations. They have been doing it in obscurity for 30 years. A quiet labor of love. Much of the work in the show is about or made by individuals in the programs, including portraits of people and their families. It is exciting to see Portland activities paralleling San Francisco's Hospitality House and Oakland's Creative Growth, movingly documented in ANP Quarterly #6. At City Hall 1221 SW 4th. Second Floor, South Offices. Until July 29, business hours. Opening first Thursday 5PM-7
The Seven exhibition at Upper Playground - Fifty24PDX - continues with: Corey Arnold, Ryan Bubnis, E*Rock, Caleb Freese, Justin Gorman, Jason Greene, Sara Padgett and Ryan Jacob Smith. It's all there - photography, painting, illustration, design and video. www.fifty24sf.com 23 NW 5th
Seattle artist Jaq Chartier makes bright abstract paintings recalling the gel electrophoresis patterns analyzing DNA genetic markers. Bright. I like. Genetics is a weighty meta topic, a rich vein of metaphor. Melody Owen created sublime installations in Portland, including one with dozens of identical hummingbird feeders, a series of migrating night illuminated igloos, illustrations and video work. She then bundled off to Alfred University where she has completed her MFA and has participated in international residencies. Her work spans more media with surety, but she will always be the "think different" artist, rare and valued. At Elizabeth Leach www.elizabethleach.com 417 NW 9th
Tamara English is a painter of rich landscapes. She offers artist workshops on the transformational potential of artmaking. So that vibe is implicit in her work too. At Mark Woolley Gallery
817 S.W. 2nd
Portland artist Sonia Kasparian makes mediative body themed mixed media constructions. Excepting some sublime life size figure sculptures in window screen, displayed some time ago in basements and abandoned spaces on Alberta, her work incorporates used material and objects into shrine-like constructions. Her new work recycles ornamental silver into compositions edging the pleasant side of baroque. Yes! At Butters Gallery www.buttersgallery.com 520 NW Davis, 2nd Floor
Artist Brian Borello does everything. Well. He is a master fabricator, particularly of metal, teaches, creates art interventions, is a significant maker of public art with an idea - but still accessible to the public and, if you need anything made of neon, he can do it. Oh, and he teaches Karate. Moving from New Orleans, he set up shop on Alberta when it was abandoned, made a public garden and hosted performances in the lot beside his studio. Borello works in 2d too, making Zen biomorphs of used motor oil on paper. These are them. In Ars Longa, Vita Brevis, the lighter elements of the oil slowly migrate, softening the image edges, leaving the pigment, oil breakdown products and metal particles in place. At Pulliam Deffenbaugh www.pulliamdeffenbaugh.com 929 NW Flanders early close 8ish
Shannon Buck is known for her printmaking as loaded hips press and whirlygigs. Hayley Barker works in performance, video and installation. For this show, both present drawings and paintings. At Powell's Basil Hayward Gallery, 3rd floor. www.powells.com. 10th and W Burnside. 6:30PM-9
Compound presents ReadySetGo, five emerging artists, Hannah Stouffer, Tatiana Krasovski, Anneli Olander, Axelhoney and Juri Ueda; all in that Compound illustration-style. At Compound - Just Be Toys www.justbedesign.com
107 NW 5th
Backspace does what it does best, drawing young artist expression. This month is perfect: Art and Politics www.backspace.bz 115 NW 5th Late
Justin "Scrappers" Morrison is an arts agitator in Portland, playfully caricaturing our wild outdoor folk culture - think Twin Peaks meets the Simpsons. He has a book of his work, Camp, and it is being released this evening at the homegrown Independent Publishing Resource Center. Scrapper's paintings are on show too.
917 SW Oak Room 218. 6PM-9
Nubby Twiglet - Shawna Haider - is a collage artist remixing pop culture - fashion and advertising. The art of collage as comment predates dada, and despite being somewhat displaced by Photoshop maneuvers, it is a simultaneously rich and accessible medium for art making and art reading. At Vino Paradiso 417 N.W. 10th Until 11, though the lighting is dim after about 9. Also there is an opening July 2 6PM-9
And, as always, the Everett Station Lofts (NW Broadway, Everett, 6th, Flanders) and the Desoto building (NW Broadway, Davis, Park) galleries are recommended for your sampling.
The Eastside artspaces are in a tizzy as their norm first Friday falls on a holiday, July 4. One to catch tonight maybe is at Lille Boutique with photos by Portland photographer and Kundalinist Aisha Harley. At Lille Boutique www.lilleboutique.com 1007 East Burnside 6PM-9
Still have power? Italians Do It Better is a recording label, as a meme, we must agree it true in certain realms such as design, hey, food too! (Making reliable motor vehicles is not a forte, but making sexy ones is) Tonight is a big dance party with Italians Do It Better recording artists the Chromatics playing with nouveau disco producers Runaway and DJ's Linger and Quiet, Genevieve Dellinger and Matt Kwiatkowski. At Holocene. $7
Robert Rauschenberg is one of the fathers of sampling, video art installation and modern art crossing country borders.
Rauschenberg studied at the experimental Black Mountain College in Asheville, North Carolina, founded by professors opposed to the tenure system and strict subject divisions. It is a model for schools such as Washington's Evergreen. Rauschenberg studied with John Cage (first to use random process to compose music), Buckminster Fuller (environmental inventor, built first geodesic dome there), Merce Cunningham (modern dancer, first to disconnect the music from the movement), Anni and Josef Albers (founders of the Bauhaus, proponents of modern design for all, not just the wealthy [Ikea?], Walter Gropius (architect and designer of the first ranch style home), and many other now famous artists, writers and poets.
Moving to New York City, Rauschenberg worked in painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture. Rauschenberg's sampling of news photographs and combining them presaged Warhol. First he developed a method of lifting printed images from magazines and transferring them to canvas using solvents. Later he used photographic printing to prepare silk screens of news images.
Rauschenberg collaborated with Bell Telephone Research Lab engineers to produce legendary performances at the Armory including "Open Score". In Open Score, two artists played tennis. Wireless microphones in each tennis racket relayed the sound of each stroke to loudspeakers. Each time the ball was hit, one light in the space was turned off until the space was in complete darkness. Then the audience surged onto the court, shown by infrared video cameras only available to the military and Bell Labs at the time. The infrared video was projected (1966!) in real time onto a huge screen. Soon after Rauschenberg founded Experiments in Art and Technology - E.A.T. - with Billy Kluver of Bell Labs to produce more art and technology collaborations. Many chapters of E.A.T. were formed around the US.
Later Rauschenberg founded the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange with the UN. The project promoted peace through art exchange and connections with ordinary people in the Soviet Union, Cuba, China, Tibet, Berlin, Mexico, Venezuela, Japan and Chile. Rauschenberg also untertook projects in India and Malaysia.
Rauschenberg is known for many other firsts in the art world.
In his later years, Rauschenberg has been arranging donations of his work to museums and for charity. We wish the artist, who passed May 12, with paintings active in his Florida studio, the best, sampling and innovating the beyond.
Blue Sky also shows Soldier Portraits by Ellen Susan. Susan references some of the first photographic work, work by Civil War photographers. Using early colloidian chemistry on metal and glass, Susan has captured positive process monochrome portraits of Iraq-era soldiers. Ususally the copywriting award of the month goes to fanciful writing, rather than gravitas. However this month we make an exception for Susan's description of the work:
"This work is a result of my relocation to Savannah, Georgia, which is near two major army installations. I started seeing soldiers in uniform at the grocery store, the gas station, everywhere. I’d never really given soldiers much thought, because I rarely encountered them. I began to read in the local newspaper that many members of the local division were being deployed to Iraq for the third time. Looking into the impossibly fresh, young face of the uniformed kid in front of me at Home Depot and connecting that face to what happens in Iraq was a big shift for me in the way I thought about soldiers.”
“I felt that the the 150 year old colloidion process could be a meaningful way to photograph contemporary soldiers, to provide a counterpoint to the anonymous representations of soldiers seen in newspapers and on television. The necessarily long exposures of this slow process often result in an intensity of gaze that asks the viewer to look longer, and the grainless, highly detailed surface brings out minute details of each individual.”
“In the end, I wanted to produce physically enduring, visually, emotionally arresting images of people who are being sent repeatedly into a war zone with no apparent end in sight.”
At Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org in the Desoto Building, 122 NW 8th. Opening 6PM-9
Susan speaks on her work Saturday, July 5th, at 3PM Free
Municipal Maneuvers is the result of collaboration between artists in PSU's Social Practice program, the Port City Development Center and the Northwest Downs Syndrome Association. Social practices art spans more than socially conscious change work. But that change work is some of the most interesting emotionally charged activity in art. The Port City Development Center (no website yet - just phone 503-236-9515) trains disabled adults for jobs and does contract work for businesses and organizations. They have been doing it in obscurity for 30 years. A quiet labor of love. Much of the work in the show is about or made by individuals in the programs, including portraits of people and their families. It is exciting to see Portland activities paralleling San Francisco's Hospitality House and Oakland's Creative Growth, movingly documented in ANP Quarterly #6. At City Hall 1221 SW 4th. Second Floor, South Offices. Until July 29, business hours. Opening first Thursday 5PM-7
The Seven exhibition at Upper Playground - Fifty24PDX - continues with: Corey Arnold, Ryan Bubnis, E*Rock, Caleb Freese, Justin Gorman, Jason Greene, Sara Padgett and Ryan Jacob Smith. It's all there - photography, painting, illustration, design and video. www.fifty24sf.com 23 NW 5th
Seattle artist Jaq Chartier makes bright abstract paintings recalling the gel electrophoresis patterns analyzing DNA genetic markers. Bright. I like. Genetics is a weighty meta topic, a rich vein of metaphor. Melody Owen created sublime installations in Portland, including one with dozens of identical hummingbird feeders, a series of migrating night illuminated igloos, illustrations and video work. She then bundled off to Alfred University where she has completed her MFA and has participated in international residencies. Her work spans more media with surety, but she will always be the "think different" artist, rare and valued. At Elizabeth Leach www.elizabethleach.com 417 NW 9th
Tamara English is a painter of rich landscapes. She offers artist workshops on the transformational potential of artmaking. So that vibe is implicit in her work too. At Mark Woolley Gallery
817 S.W. 2nd
Portland artist Sonia Kasparian makes mediative body themed mixed media constructions. Excepting some sublime life size figure sculptures in window screen, displayed some time ago in basements and abandoned spaces on Alberta, her work incorporates used material and objects into shrine-like constructions. Her new work recycles ornamental silver into compositions edging the pleasant side of baroque. Yes! At Butters Gallery www.buttersgallery.com 520 NW Davis, 2nd Floor
Artist Brian Borello does everything. Well. He is a master fabricator, particularly of metal, teaches, creates art interventions, is a significant maker of public art with an idea - but still accessible to the public and, if you need anything made of neon, he can do it. Oh, and he teaches Karate. Moving from New Orleans, he set up shop on Alberta when it was abandoned, made a public garden and hosted performances in the lot beside his studio. Borello works in 2d too, making Zen biomorphs of used motor oil on paper. These are them. In Ars Longa, Vita Brevis, the lighter elements of the oil slowly migrate, softening the image edges, leaving the pigment, oil breakdown products and metal particles in place. At Pulliam Deffenbaugh www.pulliamdeffenbaugh.com 929 NW Flanders early close 8ish
Shannon Buck is known for her printmaking as loaded hips press and whirlygigs. Hayley Barker works in performance, video and installation. For this show, both present drawings and paintings. At Powell's Basil Hayward Gallery, 3rd floor. www.powells.com. 10th and W Burnside. 6:30PM-9
Compound presents ReadySetGo, five emerging artists, Hannah Stouffer, Tatiana Krasovski, Anneli Olander, Axelhoney and Juri Ueda; all in that Compound illustration-style. At Compound - Just Be Toys www.justbedesign.com
107 NW 5th
Backspace does what it does best, drawing young artist expression. This month is perfect: Art and Politics www.backspace.bz 115 NW 5th Late
Justin "Scrappers" Morrison is an arts agitator in Portland, playfully caricaturing our wild outdoor folk culture - think Twin Peaks meets the Simpsons. He has a book of his work, Camp, and it is being released this evening at the homegrown Independent Publishing Resource Center. Scrapper's paintings are on show too.
917 SW Oak Room 218. 6PM-9
Nubby Twiglet - Shawna Haider - is a collage artist remixing pop culture - fashion and advertising. The art of collage as comment predates dada, and despite being somewhat displaced by Photoshop maneuvers, it is a simultaneously rich and accessible medium for art making and art reading. At Vino Paradiso 417 N.W. 10th Until 11, though the lighting is dim after about 9. Also there is an opening July 2 6PM-9
And, as always, the Everett Station Lofts (NW Broadway, Everett, 6th, Flanders) and the Desoto building (NW Broadway, Davis, Park) galleries are recommended for your sampling.
The Eastside artspaces are in a tizzy as their norm first Friday falls on a holiday, July 4. One to catch tonight maybe is at Lille Boutique with photos by Portland photographer and Kundalinist Aisha Harley. At Lille Boutique www.lilleboutique.com 1007 East Burnside 6PM-9
Still have power? Italians Do It Better is a recording label, as a meme, we must agree it true in certain realms such as design, hey, food too! (Making reliable motor vehicles is not a forte, but making sexy ones is) Tonight is a big dance party with Italians Do It Better recording artists the Chromatics playing with nouveau disco producers Runaway and DJ's Linger and Quiet, Genevieve Dellinger and Matt Kwiatkowski. At Holocene. $7
July 2 Serenade at NAAU
Oregon born artist Jacqueline Ehlis opens her show Serenade at the New American Art Union as part of its excellent Couture Series. The competitively awarded series offers an artist a stipend and a six week show. Ehlis received her BFA from PNCA, then an MFA from University of Nevada Las Vegas at where her thesis advisor was noted critic Dave Hickey. The UNLV philosophy has been a pleasingly serious admixture of brightness and beauty. Ehlis' take has been a use of non traditional materials, high and low, such as sparkly auto body paint, polished stainless, tinted gel and materials added to paint to produce a thick build off the canvas. At New American Art Union www.newamericanartunion.com 922 SE Ankeny Opening 6PM-9. Free
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