February 4 Tubular You

Getting To Know You(Tube) is a social practice art project twice removed. Artists Crystal Baxley and Stefan Ransom invite their creative friends to curate about 10-15 minutes each of YouTube video shorts from the vast corpus of often amateur video. The root of the word amateur is amo, to love. So amateur is in contrast to professional, work usually done for money and with a big budget. Maybe we should honor love more? Tonight Tracey Cockrell, Rebecca Carlisle-Healy and Adam Moser share a few of their favorite YouTube videos. The audience is invited to bring a link to one of their own favorites to share at the end of the program. Please no tiresome music videos. Getting to Know You(Tube) www.gettingtoknowyoutube.com at the Hollywood Theater www.hollywoodtheatre.org 4122 NE Sandy Boulevard 7:15PM $5

February 3 On Photography +

Not all good artists are dead. Carrie Mae Weems, born in Portland, is good and very much alive. A retrospective of her work is presented at the Portland Art Museum now; and she speaks there live and in person this afternoon. The show includes her still photography, video and film. The talk may sell out, advance tickets are available at the Museum box office or online. Plan arrival time comprehending ticket checking logistics. At the Portland Art Museum www.portlandartmuseum.org 2PM-3 Free for members, or regular Museum admission otherwise



As mentioned before, the latest Two Weeks/Two Works project at Fourteen30 closes today with a reception. It's work by Jessica Jackson Hutchens, one of a handful of Portland artists operating on a world stage. Highly recommended. At Portland's only member of the New Art Dealers Alliance www.newartdealers.org, Fourteen30 Gallery www.fourteen30.com 1501 SW Market Street Map Noon-2

February 1 - March 2 Authentic African Zeitgeist(s)

The Cascade Festival of African Films begins its 23rd year tonight. Being the real thing, they are more likely to avoid falling into Western and Northern traps and tropes criticized by Binyavanga Wainaina in his Granta piece. The films, drawn from across the continent, range from melodrama to material suited to children. This year several are themed on the African diaspora in the Caribbean. Some cover politics and even include a film on hiphop culture in Egypt just predating the Arab Spring. It's lean forward entertainment. Details at www.africanfilmfestival.org. Films show at PCC Cascade and the Hollywood Theater on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday schedule - check the web schedule. Best of all - free, all free.

February 1 Not So Quiet

Modou Dieng has been busy making his own work, teaching, freelance curating, and continues to lead art expeditions to Senegal, after closing his Worksound project. His latest project is the NOW Portland Triennale, scheduled for 2015. To kick off the project he presents Not So Quiet tonight. In his old Worksound space, there will be visual art, video, dance performance, poetry, DJ's and you.

The Triennale project will bring international artists, selected by international curators to multiple venues. Portland has good standing in national visual art circles. It's time to be known for world impact, and for Portland artists and audiences to become comfortable navigating world aesthetics.

Tonight Jason Traeger shows paintings; Anne Colvin, video; Barry Sanders talks criticism; Matthew Dickman reads poems; Renee Rhodes performs dance; and Golden Retriever performs.

Not So Quiet, kickoff for the NOW Portland Triennial www.nowtriennale.org 820 SE Alder 9PM-midnight $15

February 1 Eastside Art Openings

Newspace Photo has a group show Photography at the Edge. You can read about it on their website. At Newspace Photo www.newspacephoto.org 1632 SE 10th Map



Image and Identity is a quirky portrait show at Black Box Gallery www.blackboxgallery.com 811 E Burnside, Suite 212 upstairs 5PM-8:30 Free



Home Bass has a show and DJ's. At Home:Bass www.homebasspdx.com 123 NE 6th 6PM-10 Free



Redux has a love-themed show. At Redux www.reduxpdx.com 811 E Burnside



Pushdot has a show of photographs, Tangled Branches... Stories of Adoption, by Kimberli Ransom. She showed the work previously in her studio in the Towne Warehouse building. It is a series of portraits of families blended by adoption and their stories, which is also the story of the photographer. The styling is traditional portrait studio, unusual in the contemporary art world, but the narratives pull it together. At Pushdot Studio www.pushdotstudio.com 2505 SE 11th Avenue Suite 104



Most chainsaw art is banal. Maybe chainsaws in the hands of artists would be better. Tonight you can see a demonstration of chainsawing art. Then you can decide if you want to attack that particular beast. At adxportland.com 417 SE 11th x Stark Map 6PM-9

January 31-February 17 Love Theater

The Fertile Ground Festival began about a week ago and continues through this weekend. Included are many excellent theater and dance works at reasonable prices. A favorite of mine is Hand2Mouth Theater presenting Something's Got Ahold of My Heart. You can see the schedule, including their shows planned for New York, as well as Portland on their website www.hand2mouththeatre.org. Hand2Mouth at Fertile Ground Festival Studio 2, 810 SE Belmont. Whole festival pass $50 for festival dates January 30-February 3. Regular run $12-20 through the 17th

January 28 Designing Design

Design is not always valued in its time, place or culture. Not so here, now and today. High design, rooted in Northern Italy, Germany and Scandinavian countries faces innovation by designers worldwide who not only produce beautiful objects, but also work with ethnographers to design objects that work. And forward thinkers are thinking about a future in which all interfaces are virtualized and even disappear. That is the vision for ubiquitous computing first proposed by Mark Weiser at PARC.

Portland is a design town. That has been realized by the Portland Art Museum dipping its toe into design shows, including the excellent new design in China show. Meanwhile, the PNCA Museum of Contemporary Craft is backing into design from its foothold in traditional craft. We have also had several tries at Portland craft weeks and festivals.

To further the discussion about what we should do with design, PNCA has invited Sam Aquillano and Derek Cascio, creators of Design Museum Boston to Portland.

Design Museum Boston is a virtual museum: a collection of geographically distributed programs often in conjunction with other presenters and online. So the question is, are museums themselves destined for the museum? Or will brick and mortar museums encompass a virtual model in their program?

Aquillano and Cascio will be interviewed by Randy Gragg and take questions from the audience on their now 4 year old project tonight.

It is part of the Bright Lights series sponsored by local magazine the Portland Monthly and the City Club, a thoughtful public interest group. The crowd runs to Portland thinkers, architects and planners. At Jimmy Mak's, 221 NW 10th. Doors 5:30PM, discussion 6. Free

January 26 Caldera Blades

Crystal Shenk & Shelby Davis are the focus of this open house at Caldera. They are resident artists this Winter. It's a chance to see the studios and talk with the artists. At Camp Caldera www.calderaarts.org, 31500 Blue Lake Drive, Sisters, OR 1PM-3 Free



Aedion 44 has a show, Blade, by their graphic artists Jess Gleasman, Paul Nieminen, Kevin McNally and Derek Jaskot. At Aedion 44 Gallery www.aedionaesthetic.com 4430 SE Hawthorne 7PM-11 Free

January 25 Free is Good

On the last Friday of the month, the Art Museum is free from 5PM-8. So start your new year's resolution to see more free art. At the Portland Art Museum www.pam.org 1219 SW Park 5PM-8 Free



Fourteen30 starts a 2 week show by Jessica Jackson Hutchins. The reception is on closing February 3, contact the gallery for viewing times which do not include tonight. At Portland's only member of the New Art Dealers Alliance www.newartdealers.org, Fourteen30 Gallery www.fourteen30.com 1501 SW Market Street Map

January 23 Bunny Sandwich

Bunny Sandwich is a bi-coastal collaboration by artists Sandra Preston and Cori Champagne, in Portland and Boston respectively. They make illustrations which take a humorous approach to solving serious problems. They have explored modern nomads, the environmental impact of tourism and urb-suburb gardening, in Germany's schrebergärten. They present a talk tonight Open Ground: Wheelbarrows, Backpacks, and Beer - The Collaborative Process and The Bunny Sandwich Collective. It's part of an irregular series of salons on artist work, Neurobics, at Place placepdx.tumblr.com a gallery on the 3rd floor of the Pioneer Place Mall 700 SW Fifth. Doors 6:30PM, talk 7 Free

January 22 Bee There

Avoiding being stung is my earliest childhood conception of bees. We err in teaching that first to children. Instead bee knowledge can be a gateway to the wonder of nature and science. And we should be massively thankful to bees, we would be starving without them.

Matt Reed is on a mission. Bee Knowledge is his physical store in Southeast and Interwebs business providing bee knowledge and bee supplies internationally.

His specialty is bar hives. They are the simplest type and simulate hives bees have been making in trees for over 50 million years.

Matt shares his bee knowledge tonight. A presentation of the Curiosity Club, you can tune into the free live webcast off the Core77 site or visit the talk and demonstration in person at Hand Eye Supply www.handeyesupply.com/pages/curiosity-club 23 NW 4th 6PM Free

January 18, 19, 20 Things by YU

Friday social intellectualism theorist Angie Keefer speaks at YU. From the writeup at the YU website and her websites it's impossible to tell what she does or what she is speaking about. Longtime electronic music academic Curtis Roads performs Saturday at YU. On Sunday, the film Magnificent Obsession by director Douglas Sirk will be shown - at the NW Film Center in Whitsel Auditorium. Sirk's traditional works were an inspiration for Portland filmmaker Todd Haynes film Far From Heaven. All details on the YU website. www.yucontemporary.org

January 18 Controvrsy on the Flat

Controversy and Conversation is a show of graphic collage and screen printing by Peter Moore. He has worked in athletic industry creative, so employs brand-style text and imagery in his art projects. At Gallery Homeland www.galleryhomeland.org in the Ford Building www.fordbuildingpdx.com 2505 SE 11th x Division. Enter through the cafe on the corner if the main doors on 11th are locked. 7PM-10 Free

January 17 Art Spark

Art Spark, Portland's bimonthly art networking meetup, hosts the Dill Pickle Club, the Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls, Third Rail Repertory Theatre, the Sisters of the Road Journeys Art Festival, Artslandia Magazine, Stumptown Comics and Into The Woods. It's an opportunity for artists, presenters, institutions and funders to mingle. Art Spark www.portlandartspark.com at the Performing Arts Center Lobby 1111 SW Broadway 5PM-7 Free

January 14 The 511 on Creativity

511 is a service code for directions. It's also the address on NW Broadway of a new PNCA building to be made from the old Portland federal building built in 1919. That's fitting, because creative thinking is essential for finding our direction to making a better world.

Tonight project architect Brad Cloepfil and PNCA president Tom Manley discuss the plan for the building with editor and architecture-planning writer Randy Gragg. Cloepfil's first large project was the remodel of the Wieden + Kennedy agency building completed in 2000. Cloepfil's firm Allied Works has gone on to significant museum and other projects, retrofits and bespoke.

It is part of the Bright Lights series sponsored by local magazine the Portland Monthly and the City Club, a thoughtful public interest group. The crowd runs to architects and planners. At Jimmy Mak's, 221 NW 10th. Doors 5:30PM, discussion 6. Free

January 13 Video Wall

The Marylhurst Art Gym is a sensitive detector of the Portland art world. They often focus on mid career artists, but not exclusively. For this show they tap Kelly Rauer and Samantha Wall. Rauer has worked across media including in video. Wall is a gifted illustrator. At the Marylhurst Art Gym at Marylhurst University www.marylhurst.edu/theartgym/ Map 3PM-5 Free

January 12 Knitlandia, Writelandia, Performlandia, Projectlandia and Bundlandia

Writers Patrick deWitt, Jon Raymond and Venessa Veselka read tonight, connected to the current show The Big Fig by Johanna Jackson, graphic knitwear. Recommended. At the Portland Museum of Modern Art inside Mississippi Records www.portlandmuseumofmodernart.com 5202 N Albina Map 8PM Free



There is an art vector tracing between San Francisco and Portland. We have several edge-seeking artists from there here, including Patrick Rock and Harrell Fletcher. In turn, they draw San Francisco artists here to exhibit, talk and perform. Jennifer Locke is a San Francisco performance artist and curator of a visual and documentary show opening Friday at PSU. Tonight she, Keke Hunt and Nicole McClure perform live and in person. Expect a fluid and challenging evening in a good way. Rocksbox is a place for Portland's most contemporary artists to converse and experience art beyond the warm and fuzzy Portlandia genres. Always recommended. At Rocksbox Fine Art www.rocksboxfineart.com 6540 N Interstate Map 8PM-11 Free



Chris Frasier opens a projection mapping project, In Passing. Wayne Bund opens Idle and Blessed, a photographic and video performance of childhood play by adults in the Mt Hood Wilderness. It's a similar theme explored by Justine Kurland in her early work. Bund, in contrast, focuses on men. At Disjecta, in the shadow of Paul Bunyan www.disjecta.org 8371 N. Interstate
Map 6PM-9 Free

Januray 11 Ash Street Art Program

The Ash Street Art Program is kin to Project Grow, Creative Growth and others.

Artists Aaron Cunningham, David Howard, Suni Lovelie, Jim Mary, Frank Mendoza, Robbie Mitchell, Andy Nacoste, Patrick Steen and Terry Wright show their work, some with accompanying narratives.

At Palio Desert House and Cafe www.palio-in-ladds.com in Ladd's Addition 1996 SE Ladd. Regular Cafe Hours. Free

January 11 Fourteen30

Conrad Ruiz is a painter from LA who paints figures in a loose but tending towards photorealistic colorful style. He is the first artist in a series, each exhibiting two works for two weeks at Fourteen30. The works are Punchmonster and Nova. The curator and principal of Fourteen30 maintains a strong relationship with the LA art world. This is an example. At Portland's only member of the New Art Dealers Alliance www.newartdealers.org, Fourteen30 Gallery www.fourteen30.com 1501 SW Market Street Map 6PM-8

January 10 Drawing a Day

Dan Attoe is a now Portland artist represented by PDX Contemporary, and founder of Paintalica. The IPRC is publishing a limited edition book of Attoe's sketches, Everything is New. It's the result of seven years of daily drawings, some of which have been realized in his artworks. Tonight is the release of the book and a brief talk by the artist at the Independent Publishing Resource Center www.iprc.org 1101 SE Division, Suite 2 7PM Free

January 9 On Wilderness

This is primarily an art blog, but not exclusively. I have an interest in the intersection of politics, social change and energy-sustainability. Sometimes I note talks on those topics here.

I have studied environmental law and understand the spiritual value of wilderness. I often apply an ethnographic analysis of American absolutism and Walter Prescott Webb's Great Frontier thesis to political and social belief systems. I'm familiar with the deep ecology movement. That's me.

The topic of this entry is the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It is not just a map. Arctic animals roam the area and reproduce there. Caribou migrate through the plains, the 1002 area slated for oil development. It's North America's Serengeti.

Many states will face energy mining challenges, including coastal states with potential offshore oil and gas deposits, and the possibility of renewable capture by wave and offshore wind projects. We will face it in Oregon, along with geothermal drilling on Oregon public lands. The real unaddressed issue is pricing of one time public resources extracted. As we own them, we should welcome a broad discussion. One theory is that we should leave the carbon deposits in the ground until they become more valuable and carbon capture is developed. Of course the other theory is get the most money as fast as you can.

Alaska has two golden egg laying geese: mining and fishing. So Alaska faces energy mining challenges continuously. (There is also a challenge around the Pebble Mine, pitting directly in conflict mining and fishing) Mining for oil and sending it South by the Alaska Pipeline has allowed a negative state income tax and is 80% of the state GDP. But those fields are being exhausted and there is a mad search for replacement fields to continue to fill the pipe. The Alaska oil pipeline gathers oil a short 75 miles to the West of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.

Alaska has had some success at using the natural gas often found with oil as well as exporting it to Japan as LNG. More exploration will produce more gas.

Land exploration and mining is much easier than sea. There may not be as much oil and gas in the Refuge as previously imagined. There is good science that there will be Arctic Ocean oil and gas. The area just offshore has reduced ice in Summer due to global warming. But drilling, wellheads and piping to shore, in sea ice conditions and storms, will be a challenge. Think Deepwater Horizon crushed by ice. In fact a Shell platform, the Kulluk, grounded New Years Eve in the Gulf of Alaska, and the crew evacuated. The rig had been unsuccessfully drilling for exploration in the Arctic Ocean Northwest of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and was enroute to Seattle for Overwintering and maintenance when it lost its towlines. Even with horizontal recovery drilling from shore, there will be impacts on land.

The Alaska National Wildlife Refuge includes coastal access to the Arctic Ocean. So there is a national debate, including you and I, on whether, how and when the American philosophy of wilderness will be breached to mine oil and gas. If you know the name George Schaller, you might enjoy his thoughts.

I have never visited the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. The area is about a third the size of the entire state of Oregon. But Hudson Henry has. In 2006 he traversed the Brooks Range - 100 miles unassisted backpacking, in that self same Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. Tonight he relates that experience.

So, if you like, you can put yourself tonight right in the middle of our exploration as a country into the Northern facets of energy and wilderness policy.

At the Mazamas www.mazamas.org. 527 SE 43rd 7PM Free

January 7 Getting to Know You

I have not yet been to one of these events, and I must admit I cast a jaundiced eye on the premise. Other friends have gone to earlier events and liked them. So maybe I'm wrong, or maybe, more importantly, you will like this event. The organizers of Getting to Know You(Tube) have invited their friends Jovencio de la Paz, Marcus Estes and Shayla Hason, to select 10-15 minutes each of favorite shorts from YouTube, which they show tonight. It's social aesthetics presented on a big screen to a larger audience. The project was created by Portland social practice artists Crystal Baxley and Stefan Ransom, also responsible for Songs on Conceptual Art. There will be a brief question and answer with the presenters and the audience is invited to bring their own YouTube videos to share at the end as time permits. Getting to Know You(Tube) www.gettingtoknowyoutube.com at the Hollywood Theater www.hollywoodtheatre.org 4122 NE Sandy Boulevard 7PM $5

January 4-5 Move It

Meshi Chavez is a powerful modern dance mover long connected to the Portland butoh community and his own creative design. He has drawn together a stellar group of movers for two evenings performing across movement classifications. On Friday, Alicia Ankenman, Stephanie Lanckton, Andy Houseman and Sara Alizadeh perform. Saturday, it's Zan Tewksbury, Chris Larsen, Joe McLaughlin and Lanie Bergie. Music for both evenings by Lisa DeGrace, Adrian Hutapea, and Roldan. At the Headwaters Theater, by www.witdpresents.com 55 NE Farragut St. #9. The theater is in the back of the building by the active railroad tracks facing Winchell Street. Map 7:30PM $15 each evening, $22 both

January 4 Eastside Art Openings

Our close post-New Years is a little moribund for galleries and customers of art likewise, Westside and Eastside. Redux, Newspace and Pushdot continue shows.



Black Box has The Poetic Landscape, a group show on landscape. At Black Box Gallery www.blackboxgallery.com 811 E Burnside, Suite 212 upstairs 5PM-8:30 Free



Union Pine has a group show by Amanda McCarty and James Woodhead, Brooke Weston and Rikki Barney. Music by Palo Verde and Tyrants. At Union/Pine www.unionpine.com 525 SE Pine 7Pm-late Free



A new spot, relocating from NE 28th is Home Bass. They are a hybrid music store, art store and anime figure store. Art by Klutch, Brett Bowers and Lost Cause music by Ryan Organ and Penpointred. At Home Bass 123 NE 6 5PM-9 Free

January 3 Portland International

A Portland underground discussion group on international affairs ends this evening with the passing of its organizer. The group met for many years in a pub, hosting diplomats and deep thinkers on social change and international affairs. It remained off the Internet radar by design, thus this vague post. Best to the Dr.'s family.

January 3 Westside Art Openings

The Society For Nebulous Knowledge is a visual art project by Mariana Tres. In the spirit of Jorge Luis Borges, the early work of Josiah McElheny, the Museum of Jurassic Technology, and others, it is her continuing series of works based on faux figures of her artist imagination. In this show, it's Celestial Clockwork: Herschel McShougle's Dream of Ten Thousand Years, artifacts of an imaginary man in search of the long clock. The long clock project is, in fact, a fanciful project of the Long Now Foundation in Silicon Valley, intent upon creating a ten thousand year clock in actuality. At Chambers Gallery www.chambersgallery.com 916 NW Flanders Early close 8:30PM



Josef Albers is a giant in the art world for his direct works; and for his perhaps more important indirect work as a founder of the Bauhaus, Black Mountain College, and Yale's graphics program. He is also well known for his portfolio of prints and the book, The Interaction of Color. Augen has a collection from that portfolio and selections from Formulation: Articulation, a career survey of Albers' work. So for a free art history lesson of high quality, you can see this Albers show right in Portland. At Augen Gallery www.augengallery.com 716 NW Davis early close 8



Robert Rauschenberg is a grounbreaking figure in contemporary art. He was one of the early visual samplers and an inspiration to Warhol. The Leach Gallery presents a selection of Robert Rauschenberg prints this month. And this month, Leach presents Museum, photographs by Christoper Rauschenberg. The Museum show includes a striking panorama of the interior of he Hermitage, which in itself has a fascinating story. Both strongly recommended. There are also videos showing in the outside window by Miguel Arzabe, Zachary Davis Julie Perini and Rebecca Najdowski. At Elizabeth Leach Gallery www.elizabethleach.com 417 NW 9th Map 6PM-9



Camera Work is a seminal project by Alfred Steiglitz. It's intent, which was successful, was to have photography accepted as art, including in museums. Between 1903-1917, Steiglitz published 500-1000 copies quarterly of quality reproductions of the work of the time. That left behind series of limited edition prints in the form of a magazine. At Charles Hartman Fine Art www.hartmanfineart.net 134 NW 8th



PDX shows prints commissioned by Crow's Shadow Institute of Ford Family Foundation awardees Pat Boas, Arnold J Kemp, Eve Lake, Susan Murrell, Jenene Nagy and Storm Tharp. At PDX Contemporary Art www.pdxcontemporaryart.com 925 NW Flanders Map early close 8PM



Valentines has This is Just to Say That, photographs by Kersti Jan Werdal. At Valentines valentinespdx.com 232 SW Ankeny 6PM-late Free



In a fitting metaproject, Art Fare is a series of minimal portraits of art world insiders in their element. Accompanied by Stephan Hillerbrand and Mary Magsamen, who produce staged symbolic photographs with a Fluxus spirit. At Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org map 122 NW 8th 6PM-9



Glades and Ragged Underwood is a show featuring art by Portland artists Angie Wang, Vivian Chen and Julia Gfrörer illustrating their grimm and mysterious view of the Northwest landscape. At Compound Gallery www.compoundgallery.com 107 NW 5th



Everyday Anomalies by Canadian Troy Coulterman takes a comics-influenced view of an imagination-driven life where anything can happen. At Hellion Gallery www.helliongallery.com 19 NW 5th Suite 208. Through the lobby of the arched brick entry, up the stairs and to the back. Very upper floor Japan-style.
Map



For a free history lesson on early NW Artists you can stop by the Laura Russo gallery which also has sculptures by the late Manuel Izquierdo. At Laura Russo Gallery www.laurarusso.com 805 NW 21st



Everett Lofts are recommended as always. It's easier for you to see them all than for me to write suggestions. Some close as early as 9PM. At the Everett Lofts 625 NW Everett. Bounded by NW Everett, Broadway, Flanders and 6th Map

January 2 Sometimes a Great Notion

Sometimes a Great Notion is a show by Portland painter Kendra Larson. Larson takes a mystical view of the northwest landscape, so an opportunity to compare her approach with others. Not sure if there is an event associated with the show, but it opens today in the Mt Hood Community College Fireplace Gallery www.mhcc.edu/FireplaceGallery In the Student Union, AC1051; 26000 SE Stark St, Gresham