July 28 Got Curation?

There is a new opportunity in Portland to share insights in the form of the Backyard series. A small number of individuals gather at a private home, in the back yard, to hear a creative discussion, question and contribute. If you do your research on Yardwork Talks in Portland and private message the organizer, you may be able to attend a discussion on art curation tonight by Gabe Flores, Nim Wunnan, Ryan Pierce, and Tori Abernathy. They are curators of Place, Research Club, Signal Fire & Recess, with cocurators, respectively. Bring a blanket to sit on, refreshments to share. It will be fascinating! 9PM Free

July 27 Community Supported Research Everything

The long running Research Club brunch moves to a new day and place. Bring some vegetarian or vegan-friendly food, a plate, cup and utensils, and yourself. Listen to engaging speakers. Network.

This month the talks are:

In a talk A Scientist Walks into a Bar, Amanda Thomas reviews the worldwide Science Cafe movement and its Portland activities, Science Pub and Nerd Night.


Yardwork Talks is a series of backyard talks by pairs of creatives organized by Carolyn Hopkins. She relates the experience.

Maggie Wauklyn has When Good Things Happen To Good People or What Research Club Means To Me. She met Amber Case at a Research Club and as a result produced a book with Case, the Illustrated Dictionary of Cyborg Anthropology.

Research Club www.research-club.org/brunch-30 at Community Supported Everything www.communitysupportedeverything.org 1626 NE Alberta Noon-2 Free

July 26 Allied Entity∆ Control

Allied Works is Portland's world class architectural firm. First there was a sculptural structure at Maryhill Museum, and the interior design of Saucebox. It really started when a UO architecture professor convinced a world class ad agency founder to undertake an impossible renovation of an old ice storage warehouse. I worked on the project as part of the architecture interface team for a nonprofit included in the project. If you have been in the soaring W+K building, you have seen it. That architect, Brad Cloepfil has gone on to design beautiful structures in the US and Canada.

This morning, Cloepfil describes his design journey.

The event is fully subscribed. Tickets are no longer available for his talk, but the video will soon be available on the Creative Mornings website. Sponsored by Portland Creative Mornings at Ziba Design Auditorium www.ziba.com 810 NW Marshall Map Doors 8:30AM, talk 9. Free



Appendix shows are always high concept. That means that what you are in for is not always clear from the artist's advance description. But my experience is that the work is always good. Continuing the exchange between Portland and Brooklyn, Sean Raspet presents Entity∆: Advance Viewing. You can see the mysterious description on the Appendix website. At Appendix Project Space www.appendixspace.com On the alley between 26th and 27th, South of Alberta. Map 8-late Free



Control Voltage is Portland's own synth store. They have some of the tools for making electronic music, which includes but spans more than dance. This evening they are having a bring your own barbecue, meet, greet and collaborate "open mic". Details: www.facebook.com/events/281473341995444. At Control Voltage www.controlvoltage.net 3742 NE Mississippi 6PM-9:30 Free

July 25 Last Thursday on Alberta

The sky has not fallen and Last Thursday continues. There are brick and mortar galleries on the street including Ampersand, Flight64, Talisman, Screaming Sky, Guardino, Antler, Six Days Art. Some businesses also regularly rotate the art on their walls, including Random Order. And there is still a small amount of art on the street. So take a look and check the pulse of Alberta. And encourage the bars and restaurants to step up to fund the event!

This month there is also a show of art by tattoo artists. That is at Optic Nerve. Included is work from artists working at Atlas, Blacklist, Jackalope, Lucky Supreme, Optic Nerve and Scapegoat. At Optic Nerve Arts 2224 NE Alberta

July 24 Destination Magic

Destination DIY is a podcast interviewing individuals who are champion do it yourselfers. Beyond the pod, this in-person event is one of Portland's great crafter meetups. People bring their projects to work on, listen to excerpts from the show's producer and a DJ while munching on pizza and quaffing micros at the always excellent ADX. There was a craft-themed trivia contest too. At adxportland.com 417 SE 11th x Stark Map 7PM-9 $3-5 comestibles included



Matt Hall opens Memory / Magic / Wonder tonight at Ampersand. Hall taps the Northwest Magical Naturalism theme in mixed media assemblages and drawings. The show will also be open last Thursday. Ampersand Vintage Printed Material www.ampersandvintage.com 2916 NE Alberta, Ste B. Map 6PM-9 Free

July 23 UX:Still Worth Doing Well

We have written before of Edward Tufte.

Tufte is the original user experience - UX - designer. He teaches one day seminars in information design which are highly, highly recommended. His specialty is a design philosophy that is at once beautiful and effective. Think that's not important? Tufte heavily cites examples of PowerPoint presentations that were poorly designed. People died as a result of decisions based on those self same PowerPoints. Unfortunately this event is completely subscribed. There are still openings in Seattle later in the week. The seminar is reasonably priced as it includes a set of Tufte's reference books. It is also fascinating and entertaining; Tufte is professor emeritus at Yale. Edward Tufte one day seminar on information and presentation design. Details at www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/courses. 8:45AM-4 $380

July 21 Guru Full Moon

Guru Full Moon. It is a pregnant phrase. It is an event too, celebrated by Buddhists in honor of the Buddha's first teaching; it is celebrated by Hindus as the birth of the guru Vyasa.

And you can celebrate it with an intimate concert of vocal ragas by Michael Stirling accompanied by David Jacobs on tabla.

At the intimate Sun Gate Studio 4940 NE 16th 7:30PM by donation

July 20 Deep Caldera Place

We live on the very edge of the ring of fire. Tectonic plates collide here. As one slides under the other, mountains and volcanoes rise. Caldera is a beautiful word capturing the remnants of a mountain collapsed into a molten pool.

Caldera is the name and metaphor too for the ad agency's camp for artists and kids coinspiring one another. They have rare tours and today is one. You will get a chance to see the studios, the classes as they happen and the beautiful land. RSVP required at 503-937-3071. At Camp Caldera www.calderaarts.org, 31500 Blue Lake Drive, Sisters, OR 1PM-3 Free



This is the second Deep of the season. "United Through Movement, Bonded By Community". All styles. JayBee Littlefoot on the wheelz of steel. Special guests, The Miracles Club. Performances by Paint, FRM, Drish and Horizun. Battlers be Jesus & Kelvin, John & Yuta, Day & Night, Soulja Hostile & Sammie, Young Thrillz & Aantix, Chi Rod & KamikOszee, Shamboyant & JustJensine, Stickz n' Stonez, #TheMiniMonsterz, Madd Soul Family, Fly & Lil C-Lee, Timon & Pumbaa, Temptations, Cawn Syrup, 4play, House of Aquarius, Synikk and Julie, Blazy and Zack Vowell, BeToBe, Jesus & Alfred, Shallow, Cat Pak, Daniel & Malik, Lazy Rocka Bama, Daewoo, Young Budda & Kung Fu Phamda, Matt & Jimmy, Girl Leo & Cash Flow Joe, B. Doug & Po, Yin Yang Twinz, Soul Trigger (Jungwho & Z), Miracles Club x Paint, Obi-wan-ton-soup and Qui-gon-jinn-n-juice, The Lovemachines, Vietbodian , The Minions , EL and EL, Main Event, EJ & Gerardo , Hype and Prodigy, Marshae & Bryan , Shift & Hi Tech, Yung Boneafide and Kid Blast , Shawn & Ciara and Kiana Sagon & Reallyne Russell. Epics. #DeepPDX At the Trio 909 E Burnside. All ages. Doors 4PM $14



Place is the space for installation in Portland. Their two galleries and a video room are home to the area's most interesting art work.

This month Liz Harris opens Event Horizon: living on the edge in the Black Gallery. That is appropriate, because the work is a field of black ceramic forms inspired by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the time-space distortion produced by black holes.

Mask Tape Project by Tim Combs is his comment on educational and work cultures, and their unnecessary constraints. The White Gallery continues Internal Server Error by Felicity Fenton. Freedom: Godot Has Finally Arrived by Gabrijel Savic Ra also continues.

All at Place, www.placepdx.com a gallery on the 3rd floor of the Pioneer Place Mall along with the People's art of Portland and the Woolley Gallery. If the mall appears closed, enter the film theater building adjacent, travel through the tunnel to the Place mall, and take the elevator to the 3rd floor, sometimes the bridge on the 3rd floor is open too. 700 SW Fifth. 5PM-9 Free



Next door, Mark Woolley throws a samba party to accompany his group show Carnival. Participants are encouraged to attend in Carnival-inspired costume.

July 13 More Art West, East, North

Brandon Chuesy has paintings and sculptures opening tonight. At Nationale www.nationale.us 811 E Burnside Map 6PM-8ish Free



ruf·fle is a show women artists and designers. They are: Natalie Barela, Albertha Bradley, Noelle Bullock, Lydia Cambron, Goose&Flo, Ali Gradischer, Sara Huston, Kate MacKinnon, Kari Merkl, Diane Pfeiffer, Erin Reschke, Jennifer Wall and Jennifer James Wright. At the University of Oregon White Stag Building, whitebox.uoregon.edu 70 NW Couch 6PM-9 Free



Disjecta has Versus, a mid-program readout by PNCA visual studies MFA students: Sarah Abbott, Stephanie Brachmann, Mary Mac Dahlke, John Dougherty, Mario Gallucci, Thomas Gamble, Jonathan Gann, Michael Horwitz, Leif Lee, Travis Nikolai, Mark Palmen, Anya Roberts-Toney, Lauren Seiffert, Jessie Spiess, Rachel Wolf, Richard York and Stephanie Yu. There is a Tumbler for the students at pnca-versus.tumblr.com. At Disjecta, in the shadow of Paul Bunyan www.disjecta.org 8371 N. Interstate Map 6PM-9 Free

July 12 Eastside Art Openings

America has embraced food as a fetish. Culinary school has produced a generation of cooks who are obsessed with artistically garnished plating. There are food magazines with photography that could go up with any beauty or architecture publication. Then eaters are photographing their food and sharing it on social media. With that inspiration, Gina Beavers presents Family Style. Starting with photographs of food from social media sites, they are paintings of that photograph built in low relief. The messy build textures work well with the range of hue. Ironically the work itself does not translate well to being photographed, it demands to be seen in person. 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



The Decisive Moment: Documentary and Street is a group show curated by Christopher Rauschenberg, who brings quite a few years himself of looking at, and sometimes exposing, street photography. At Black Box Gallery www.blackboxgallery.com 811 E Burnside, Suite 212 upstairs 5PM-8:30 Free



Homeland opens Free People, a show of paintings. The painters are Kavin Buck, Calvin Ross Carl, Timothy Scott Dalbow, Arcy Douglass, Danridge Geiger, Ruth Lantz, Kendra Larson, Matthew Letzelter, Raul J Mendez, Ralph Pugay and Roy Tomlinson. It's an interesting cross section of some of the more individualistic painters in town. 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. 6:30PM-9 Free



Mad Science is a performance installation. Imagine a future in which the Mad Science institute, using time travel, pulls the brilliant minds of today forward to solve the sure-to-be-many problems of 2045. Would you go? Falling firmly into yes are the artists: Jason Blackheart, Eric Trine, Shawna X, Jason Rens, Kiji McCafferty, Nick Stokes and William Bryant. Continually living into the future, at least a little, is the Portland ad community which seem to be behind this project. Mad Science at Gallery 135,
135 NW Park. RSVP requested. Free



ADX opens Americana, household furniture by local maker Carlino. At adxportland.com 417 SE 11th x Stark Map 6PM-9 Free

July 11 Help!

I wish there was more I could do to help is a work by artist Tori Abernathy opening tonight. America is anxious. We have prima face reason to be. But we also have a press-media that magnifies and falsely frames those reasons. I wish there was more I could do to help is here to help, in commenting on the situation from a creative viewpoint. Abernathy is one of Portland's finest experimental curators and operates in the social practice realm for her personal work. At the PSU Littman Gallery in Smith Union. www.pdx.edu/littmanandwhite Littman Gallery, PSU Smith Hall, Room 250, 1825 SW Broadway 4PM-7



Cheyenne Sawyer opens a poppy show of etchings tonight. She is a tattoo artist at Atlas. Several Mississippi outlets are also launching a second Thursday art opening schedule. That includes Good, Paxton Gate, Black Wagon, Optik and Mississippi Chiropractic. At Albina Press, 4637 N. Albina Ave x Blandena Map 6PM-8



Paradoxically paired with the anxiety show is the Portland drone fly-in. These are the smiley, good drones though.

The Portland-Hood River area is drone central. Several major drone manufacturers are homed here producing maybe a half billion dollars worth of war drones yearly. The dream is a much larger domestic drone ecosystem and there is an effort underway to open up a large area of Eastern Oregon for test flights. Eventually we will work out regulations to prevent drones and commercial aircraft from colliding, drones colliding, and deal with drones and birds colliding. Only then will we realize the dream of autonomous fast food delivery to every home with drones.

Seriously, I have seen some beautiful video shot from quadracopters. See the shot from 1:23-1:29 in Finding Portland. And one person's drone is another's model airplane.

Portland's DIY drone builders and experimenters get together monthly to compare notes and coordinate radio control frequencies. Many of their drones have built from kits or customized. So they are probably a smart group of interesting people.

PDXdrones fly-in at Washington High School SE Stark and 12th 6PM-9

July 9 Community Through Capitalism

Capitalism has its strong points. In practice its weak points are widespread externalities and information hiding to unnatural advantage. But this is not about that. Portland entrepreneur Mike Merrill has created a corporation of himself. It has shares that trade on a private online market. Mr. Merrill consults his shareholders on life and activity decisions. The shareholders vote their advice in proportion to their shares. Take a look at kmikeym.com. To most people the idea seems shocking. But it is really an elegant experiment in social networking. If you are curious about the experiences of Mr Merrill, you can visit, tune in, or watch later this presentation by Mike on his grand experiment in community through capitalism. 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

July 5 Eastside Art Openings

Redux has Stitchers, a show of embroidery curated by Greg Pitters. The stitchers are Cate Anevski, Cathie Jo "Bo Betsy", Cathy Zwicker, Emily Katz, Jaclyn Rose, Tripper Dungan, Pamela Davis and Tyler Mackie.
At Redux www.reduxpdx.com 811 E Burnside



Red Clouds Collective runs to craft, but that's fine. Their artists have a show tonight I Want to Hold Your Hand. Collective members are Mark Warren Jacques, David Wien, James Douglas Mitchell, Seth Neefus, Perry Pfister, Jason Levins, Timothy Karpinski, and more. Music by Gregory & The Hawk, Vikesh Kapoor and Settlers. At Union/Pine www.unionpine.com 525 SE Pine 7Pm-late Free



Another craft spot running to experimental ceramics is the Eutectic Gallery. They have John George Larson, Richard Brandt, Brad McLemore plus regular gallery artists. At Eutectic Gallery 1930 NE Oregon (entrance on 20th) 5PM-8



Newspace has a juried group show. It was curated by Sarah Stolfafrom the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center. Artists included are Zachary Archer, Matthew Arnold, Michael Butler, Larry Clark, Sage Corson, Juan Fernandez, Eran Gilat, Larry Gloth, Satu Haavisto, Kathleen Hayes, Kristen Heldmann, Birte Kaufmann, Sarah-Marie Land, Amiko Li, Robbie McClaran, Jennifer McClure, Diane Meyer, Sarah Nesbitt, Blake Ogden, Duncan Oja, Stan Raucher, Georgina Reskala, Debora Schwedhelm, H. Jennings Sheffield, Kurt Simonson, Paul Sisson, Annick Sjobakken, Stacie Turner, Brett Walker and Robert Walters. At Newspace Photo www.newspacephoto.org 1632 SE 10th Map



The urban art gallery Home:Bass has Chelsea Rose and Laura Borealisis. Female DJs Foxdye, Bloodmouse and Mewp provide musical stylings. At Home:Bass www.homebasspdx.com 123 NE 6th 6PM-10 5-10

July 3 Westside Art Openings

Some galleries will be open tonight, none will be open tomorrow.



Caldera hosts a summer of shows by artists participating in the previous Winter residencies. The first is Roger Peet. At Caldera Arts www.calderaarts.org At the ad agency next door to the main entrance. 224 NW 13th #305 6PM-10 5PM - 8pm



Lure is a new show by Amy Ruppel which I think has to do with fish. Hellion will not be open at all, resuming normal operations Saturday. 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 not open tonight



Grass Hut knows how to take over the sidewalk for a barbeque. They do that and open a show of skatedecks, Bakerz Dozen. Included is a raffle for the Powell St Skatespot. Artists are Bigfoot, Brent Wick, Cupco, Ferris Plock, Chris Johanson, David Wien, Manny Aloha, Michiel Walrave, Scrappers, Erik Railton, Toshikazu Nozaka, Michael Sieben, and Dave the Chimp. Decks by Bearturds, Grass Hut's international skate division. Fun! Grass Hut in Floating World. www.grasshutcorp.com 400 NE Couch



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



Compound has Second Nature, by Adam Haynes, Steve Seeley and Keith Carter. At Compound Gallery www.compoundgallery.com 107 NW 5th 6PM-10



There are group shows at Augen and Froelick - Augen Gallery www.augengallery.com 716 NW Davis and Froelick Gallery www.froelickgallery.com 714 NW Davis early close 8



The Museum of Contemporary Craft www.museumofcontemporarycraft.org is often open at no charge on first Thursday and there is also a craft talk there this evening. 724 NW Davis



Blue Sky has Portland artist Shawn Records with Flaming Energy Ball, a show themed on his newfound interest in basketball sparked by his children. There is a group show Optical with Blake Andrews, Hillary Atiyeh, Bill Bailey, Dietlinde Bamberger, Mary Ellen Bartley, Aryan Chappell, Thibault de Puyfontaine, Susan de Witt, Jeffrey Dionesotes, Ralph Gabriner, LeeAnn Gauthier, Barbara Gilson, George Greenstein, Martin Gremm, Curtis Hamilton, Harrison Higgs, Timothy Householder, Hannah Karsen, Ann Kendellen, Frank Lavelle, Stu Levy, Helen Maringer, Helena Lukas Martemucci, Larry Merrill, Graydon Miller, Alexis Pike, Quamar Salih, Stan Sherer, John Snyder, Joni Sternbach, Kirk Thompson, Donald Webb, Harry Wilks, David Wilson, Carol Yarrow and Yelena Zhavoronkova. At Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org map 122 NW 8th 6PM-9