August 29 Ballet Festival

The Oregon Ballet Theater, OBT, has a little space on the East side, an old bank redesigned by Holst. They are adapting their performances and school of ballet to connect with you in a day of free performances and workshops. The full schedule is here. At the OBT rehearsal studios 818 SE Sixth, 11AM-6PM, Free

August 27 Evan B Harris at Together Gallery

Illustrator Evan B. Harris shows Fables and the Flourish with musical accompaniment by Horse Feathers At Together Gallery www.togethergallery.com 2916 NE Alberta 6PM-10

August 26 OfficePDX in neu situ

OfficePDX is a design concern and store. They were the lonely outpost of mid-late 20th century design and smart art on NE Alberta street. They have gone virtual, Internet sales, and nomadic, popping up for events. This is one.

Tonight they show art by illustrator Matte Stephens at friends Sandbox Studio's space. OfficePDX at Sandbox Studios 420 NE 9th, RSVP shop@officepdx.com 7PM-9 Free

August 25-27 Rock Poster, Book Cover, Type Design Design Festival

This blog does not list shows of rock poster art. Not that is is not creative. It exists in its own local ecosystem of aesthetics, audience and commerce. But for an examination of that world, Died Young, Stayed Pretty, by filmmaker Eileen Yaghoobian, shows this evening as part of a three night series, Design à Trois, by the local chapter of the AIGA. They do graphics. Music after, of course, at Slabtown.

Night two is an examination of book cover art. Powell's always has many entertaining examples in the windows facing 10th. Tonight New York designer-comedian, an interesting combination on many levels, Patrick Borelli, presents You Should Judge A Book By Its Cover. It is his presentation of 50 favorite book covers, with comedic commentary.

The third night is a one hour collection of typography and motion graphic text films. The Typophile Film Fest is produced by Punchcut, a San Francisco interface production company. The trailer is an old i-D punk-style collage, which was [is?] a common rock poster genre.

Tuesday, film, Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st 7PM $8, bands later Slabtown, Free
Wednesday, talk, Art Institute of Portland, 1122 NW Davis, 7PM cash only $10
Thursday, film, Art Institute of Portland, 1122 NW Davis, 7PM cash only $10

August 22 The Art of Touring Music

Fontanelle Gallery has assembled a show of documentation: musicians on tour. As part of the show they have music of the subjects of the show. Tonight is live Sara Jaffe, Erase Errata; Rebecca Gates; Tara Jane Oneil and Julianna Bright, The Golden Bears. A nice confab of music and art, which are the same. At Fontanelle Gallery www.fontanellegallery.com 205 SW Pine 6PM Free

August 21 Tuvan Throat Singing

Portland musician Enrique Ugalde, performing as Soriah, knows a little about Tuvan throat singing. He has traveled to the small Russian republic, which lies between Siberia and Mongolia, to study and perform. Last year he placed third in the world in a competition at the International Symposium of Khoomei, the annual world gathering of throat singers from Central Asia and beyond, including from Portland.

Soriah performs a variety of music, locally and internationally. Tonight he releases a new recording, Atlan. At Someday Lounge, 125 NW 5th 9PM $15

August 20 Art Spark at Radio Room

Art Spark is a monthly networking happy hour for the Portland art world. It is loosely structured with a guest arts organization given 10 minutes to present themselves at 6PM. This cross art group and cross artist networking is what will sustain Portland arts and allow it to grow in the next few years. These events are great for creative, free ranging conversation and are free! www.portlandartspark.com at Radio Room 1101 NE Alberta 5PM-7 Free

August 15 Portland Enters the Iron Age: an Iron Pour

The Iron Age began in various parts of the world between about 2000 and 300BC and is considered to have persisted until the rise of the great civilizations such a the Greeks and the Han Dynasty. Yet it has not yet come to Portland. That changes Saturday, with Portland Iron's First Iron Pour.

It is something that has been going on for a few years at art schools. Artists (you) prepare sand molds. A furnace is charged with ferrous scrap and coke, heated to 2800F and the resulting molten iron is poured into molds. Crude but effective.

Our profligate consumption of steel ensures that we don't need to make metal from iron ore, as did our ancestors, simplifying the process immensely. We have that advantage and the advantage of leisure time to contemplate aesthetics.

If you want to make a mold, there are workshops 6PM-10 at the Watershed Thursday and Friday August 13,14. There is a fee for materials of $20. Or show up early at the pour and there will be a limited number of open-faced sand-resin molds you can hand carve to your own likeness and contribute $5 for the pour. Watching is free!

These pours are dramatic community events, entirely safe at a distance, fun to watch, and even kid friendly.

We usually don't list sponsors, but they are the Oregon Arts Commission, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, Vancouver Iron and Steel, Bridgetown Cores, Harbison Walker Refractories, Willamette Graystone, Portland State University, Pacific NW College of Art, Gallery Homeland, Silverton Foundry and Tool Shed PDX. Great job all for catching Portland up to the Iron Age!

Mold workshops August 13,14 at Tool Shed PDX www.toolshedpdx.org 5040 SE Milwakee 6PM-10 $20. Pour at OMSI www.omsi.edu 1945 SE Water. Furnace starts noon; mold carving ($5). Pours 3PM-6. Furnace breakdown 6PM. Watching, Free

August 15 Performances + Art at Disjecta + Audio Cinema

Disjecta is currently showing PNCA MFA work at the half point. This first MFA class will go on to produce their thesis work next year. So it is a preview and a pleasure. Complementing the show is an evening of performance by Bill Brown and Sabine Gruffat themed Time Machine. I am excited for this after many a conversation about "performance art", the art people love to hate. At it's best, it is story telling, perhaps a little abstract and ideally laconic and lyrical, like Zen landscape poetry. Personal and authentic is good too. See and hear for yourself. All at Disjecta www.disjecta.org 8371 N. Interstate opening 8PM $5


Audio Cinema is a rehearsal space, shooting space, and more, making an important place in Portland music. Many musicians here are artists, and vice versa. These creative vectors combine when Audio Cinema mounts its annual art show. Artists include Candace Gossen:paintings, Dustin Zemel: video, Evertt Beidler: sculpture, ilan Laks: paintings & photos, Cat Coats: paintings, Marian Slakie: paintings, Jacob Perkins: video, Heidi Wirz: paintings, Mike Albano: paintings, Jennifer Sims: fashion, George Perrou: paintings, Michelle Thompson: photography and Jonathan Stanish: paintings. Accompanying all this art is music by Strangeletter, Casper Maccabee, Jacob Perkins, Search Party, Defeating the Purpose, Hotter than a Crotch, Drunken Prayer, Noise, Battle Axe Massacre, Doonevetter, The WokenBokes, Julius and Loyd Family Players. All at AudioCinema www.audiocinema.org 226 SE Madison, 6PM-2 Free, $5-10 suggested donation

Aug 14-23 Manor of Art

The alliance of art and space takes form again at a large show at Milepost 5. You have likely been there and may have noticed a modern lofty building and an old brick building. The older building is planned for conversion into artist workspaces. For this show, art spans many of both building spaces. In the old building, artists have their own room for installation. There will be music and experimental theater as well.

Artists include Adam Bailey, Adam Charles Ross, Alicia J. Rose, Amy Jorgensen, Amy Ruppel, Andrea Nelson, Andrew Enna, Anna Solcaniova King, Anni Tracy, Angela Gay, Appendix, Arringtond de Dionyso, Ben Pink, Brennan Conaway, Urban Eden (Bret Hostetler and Andrew Wenna), Brin Levinson, Brooke Weston, Chris Haberman, Cris Moss, David Stein, Derek Ecklund, Derek Olsen, Eatcho, Erin Nations, Ezra Johnson-Greenough, Felicity Fenton, Gabe Flores (w Jerry Gilmer), James Wood, Julianna Paradisi, Gabriel Decker, Gabriel Liston, Gary Wiseman, George Perrou, Heather Hawkins, Heidi Elise-Wirz, Jennifer Doheny, Joe Shea, Joel Barber, Jason Brown, Jason Graham, Jeff Fontaine, Jennifer Mercede, Jeremy Schultz, John Graeter, John Meyers, John Wray, Jonathon Hill-Jacquard, Jonathan Stanish, Karah Bruce-Larkin, Hypnokomix/Kate Fenker, Keith Rosson, Kelly Rauer, Moto Galore/Kenneth Wright, Klutch, Launchpad Gallery, Luke Heinrich, Maggie Casey, Marian Spadone, Mark Randall, Mart Schaefer, Marlena Simone, Matthew Haggett, Matt Schlosky, Meredith Andrews, Michael Fields, Michael Costello, Michael T. Hensley, Misty Ray, Muse Design, Nathan Bennett, Nicole Linde, Hypnokomix/Jason Squamata, Rachel J. Siegel, Rebecca Shapiro, Rhoda London, Richard Schemmerer, Rob Pellicer, Roscoe Hall II, Roxanne Jackson, Sarah Kamsler, Scott C. Johnson, Sean Joseph Patrick Carney, Stephen Plount, Suzanne Elizabeth, Tender Loving Empire, Tamara English, Taylor Cass, Tiffany Lee Brown, TJ Norris, Tomita Designs, Travis Taylor, Troy Briggs, Tyler Corbett and Walt Curtis.

There is a detailed schedule of music, theater and art viewing times at the website. It's at Milepost5 www.milepostfive.com 900 NE 81st (go by MAX) 7PM-10 Free

August 14 Brickout Viola Cello En Pointe

NATIONALE is an intimate art, design and style space. This month they show Brickthrough by Edward Jeffrey Kriksciun. Music opening evening on viola too at NATIONALE nationaleportland.blogspot.com 2730 E Burnside 6PM-9 Free


Also this evening in the Rose Garden is a collaboration of the Portland Cello Project and the Ballet. At the Washington Park amphitheater. 6PM Free

August 13 Jeffry Mitchell at the Museum

The Portland Art Museum has started a monthly intimate program where you can stroll through the Museum with an artist who speaks about what work they like and why. This month's artist is Seattle's ultra baroque sculptor Jeffry Mitchell Later everyone retires to the cafe for drinks and more conversation. It requires museum admission, to keep the museum from becoming even more nonprofit than it already is, so go with a member or make an afternoon tour. If interested, meet promptly at 6PM at the side entrance by the courtyard. Note you can join for a year of unlimited admission for $55 for one person or $85 for two. At the Portland Art Museum www.pam.org 1219 SW Park 6PM-8 $10, 9 students

August 11 Taiko+Butoh Free

Art is life and love. Mischievous Fox's of the Murdoch kind, and their ilk, seed the culture wars to boost wanning circulation. But Portlander's know that creative culture experienced, sustains creativity practiced, in commerce, worldchanging and family.

The City of Portland Parks and Recreation Department has preserved its free performances in the park this summer. You can see them free in a recession pestered economy, and be inspired in your own challenges to meet them creatively. Free. Free is good.

The big list is here. Tonight the Portland Taiko performs with the Mizu Desierto Butoh Theatre.

At the Washington Park amphitheater. 6PM Free

August 7 Eastside Art Openings

Life+Limb shows designs and illustrations by Lisa Dejohn. The work is a good match with the shop's elegant but understated minimalism. At www.lifeandlimb.net 1716 E. Burnside


NAAU continues Ty Ennis's examination of a series of murders in Spokane, Washington: You’ll Live It Here: The Lilac City Track Murders ‘96-’98. At New American Art Union www.newamericanartunion.com 922 SE Ankeny


Worksound presents a group show "Future in Retrospect". At WorksoundPDX www.worksoundpdx.com 820 SE Alder



In the 811 block

Second Nature shows photographs by Sarah Meadows.

Grass Hut shows Inkwads, classic comic book style illustrations by Hellen Jo, Brent Wick, Kiyoshi Nakazawa, John Black and Tom Neely.

Redux has Sinister Concept, dioramas by Rochard Fox.

All 811 E Burnside


Down the block Anja Verdugo shows illustrtions, frocks & freemasons, at clothing store Frank James 729 E Brunside


Homeland shows, Incompletely, curated by Calvin Ross Carl and includes himself, Derek Franklin, Ashley Sloan, Josh Smith, Bailey Winters and Gary Wiseman. At Gallery Homeland www.galleryhomeland.org 2505 SE 11th x Division


Newspace has an annual curated group show. www.newspacephoto.org 1632 SE 10th


The Press Club has brush illustration work incorporating the artist, Dante Cohen's interest in China. It will be interesting to see how this mix crosses the pond, and in which direction. At The Press Club 2621 SE Clinton

August 6 Westside Art Openings

Portland artist Whitney Nye shows large scale collage paintings. Unlike many collage artists, her work has a minimal feeling, repeating small detail into fields of pattern. It has continuity with her last major body of work, while reinventing itself. In this case, the repeat patterns are often just that, sewing patterns, disembodied half sleeves and legs, body panels and the little filler pieces that allow flat fabric to form clothes for curved bodies. In a way it is metaphorical, flat paintings on the wall become multidimensional emotional experiences by the collage of many elements, familiar and novel. The work also includes vintage illustration elements and old books, forming repeating patterns of the familiar repurposed. This work would be at home in the home of any of the many Portland apparel designers; or in a public building art collection of a city focused on attracting and nurturing the apparel business cluster. At Laura Russo Gallery www.laurarusso.com 805 NW 21st



Art reinvents itself and its relevance continuously. The next generation of collectors require emotional resonance and this show is an example, especially with Portland's music world the finely interwoven with the world of visual art. The Art of Touring is a show of photographs documenting the musical road trips of Portland performers. Artists include Alissa Anderson (Vetiver), Hannah Mae Blair, Sharon Cheslow, Mia Clarke (Electrelane), Jem Cohen, Erika Spring Forster (Au Revoir Simone), Rebecca Gates, Emma Gaze (Electrelane), Megan Holmes, Andy Moor (The Ex), Tara Jane Oneil and Jean Smith (Mecca Normal). The show also marks the release of the same named book, a collection of artwork and writing based on firsthand touring experiences, edited by Sara Jaffe (Erase Errata) and Mia Clarke (Electrelane). The visual art, music and literature collaboration is a great strategy for reaching a larger audience. The gallery also sponsors performances by Sara Jaffe (Erase Errata), Tara Jane Oneil, and Julianna Bright (The Golden Bears) on Saturday, August 22. At Fontanelle www.fontanellegallery.com 205 SW Pine



Installationist Kim Ray presents "generation" in the Nines Gallery (inside Blue Sky). Her installation is a Fibonacci spiral of balloons precisely positioned and sized. See them as soon as possible, they are slowly deflating. The spiral occurs naturally in things like pine cones and sunflowers, a beautiful exposition is Sir A'Arcy Wentworth Thompson's "On Growth and Form". Inside Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org 122 NW 8th



The Everett Station Lofts are recommended, as always - bounded by NW Everett, Broadway, Flanders and 6th. It is their big all building opening, including upstairs.



Malia Jensen is a Portland-NYC artist from an art family here. She does a good job with idea-based sculpture and video, somewhat quiet, sometimes odd and often hard hitting. She is responsible for the giant beaver in the ad agency lobby and the tree that used to be at Seaplane. See her latest in an all too rare Portland show. At Elizabeth Leach www.elizabethleach.com 417 NW 9th



Trees are one of the things which define our landscape here, they are woven into our psyche. A lot of paper is made from them and it is paper that decays, as do real life trees, unless carefully conserved and valued. The late photographer and curator Terry Toedtemeier drew upon them as subject, along with our geological landscape. Toedtemeier is largely responsible for the photography collection at the Art Museum, see his practiced eye at work in his own photographs. At PDX Contemporary Art www.pdxcontemporaryart.com 925 NW Flanders early close 8PM



Fugaku Sanjūrokkei, Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, is a famous series of wood block prints by Katsushika Hokusai. Others have reprised his subject. Hokusai made his illustrations traveling to farmlands and fishing villiages, capturing peoples' lives in relation to Mt Fuji, a Japanese symbol of immortality. Tokyo artists Rei, Reijiro Mochizuki, and Hooky, Souichiro Fukuda, traveled 34,033km over 131 days, sketching, photographing and painting what they found, everyday lives and landscapes of Japan today. The result is the book Survival Drive, a show at Compound and live painting opening night. The compound show also includes the artists' travels in the last week in Portland making work about here. It all is a lesson in the importance of authenticity in Japanese culture. Learn. At Compound Gallery www.compoundgallery.com 107 NW 5th



The Pulliam Gallery has bright work, perfect for summer, by James Boulton, Brad Brown, Linda Geary, Derek Franklin, Nicholas Nyland, Zina Al-Shukri, Josh Ferris, Matthew Gordon and Maja Ruznic. Some are recently minted MFA's from CCA in SF/Oakland if you are curious about happenings there. At Pulliam Gallery www.pulliamdeffenbaugh.com 929 NW Flanders early close 8PM



Documentary photography with an artistic focus is always fascinating, doubly so when made in times and places we don't go. That would be the case for Ethan Eisenberg's Holyland, exposed between 1994-2005 in the Gaza Strip. The area is very small, 25 miles by 4-8 miles wide with a very large population, one and a half million. It was governed by the Palestinian Authority in that period but occupied by the Israeli army. See for yourself Eisenberg's observations, he also speaks Saturday at 3 at the gallery with Martin Bogren. Bogren shows Ocean, documenting the first visit by Rejastani children to the ocean to swim. At Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org 122 NW 8th



This month is a free art history lesson, specifically in photography, at the Charles A. Hartman Gallery. The history of photography has often been the history of painting: landscape and portraits. This show is the portrait branch as illustrated by well known photographers such as Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus, Corey Arnold, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Harry Callahan, Flor Garduno, Lewis Hine, William Klein, Danny Lyon, Sally Mann, Daido Moriyama, Arnold Newman, W. Eugene Smith, Frederick Sommer, Alfred Stieglitz, Mark Steinmetz and Issei Suda. That covers a wide range in the canon of photographic portraiture, but necessarily a small sample of photographers. Worth seeing. At Charles A. Hartman www.hartmanfineart.net 134 NW 8th



Grassy Knoll gallery continues with a fascinating animation by Yellena James. James constructs fanciful worlds, maybe seascapes. She has collaborated with Fashionbuddha studio and sound designer Radium to create an interactive installation driven by your touch. At Grassy Knoll Gallery www.grassyknollgallery.com 123 NW 2nd



Stumptown downtown on 3rd has a great mixed media show. They win the copywriting award of the month. "What is THIS? Where did it come from? How did it get here? How did I get here to look at it? Does it matter? Is it interesting? None of these answers are available in THIS, a photo series by David Neevel. THIS and more of Neevel's work will not be answering any questions in August at the Downtown Stumptown.

David Neevel is from Oregon. For a while now he has lived in Portland, where he works and eats and worries and feels it and tries hard but sometimes gets so tired and would like a hot dog please and misses you, so much. He got a degree in Physics from the University of Oregon but has forgotten a lot of the details. See more of what he's done or demean him anonymously at www.dickbird.org".

At Stumptown www.stumptowncoffee.com 128 SW 3rd



Longtime Portland photographers Stuart Levy shows Portland landscape panoramas. In Hidden Gems Revealed he mixes it up by making exposures with unusual points of view and light. Named after Stieglitz' famous magazine, the Camerawork gallery has quietly been presenting photo shows for a long, long, long time, it's a great venue if you are a photographer. www.thecameraworkgallery.org 2255 NW Northrup

August 3,15,19 Call for PICA TBA Volunteers

PICA needs a large number of volunteers and some of the jobs can use specialized skills such as building, blogging and photo-video for its TBA festival in September. In exchange for volunteering, you can get free passes to some events. Best, it's a great opportunity to spend time with other creative volunteers and meet the artists. To find out more, go to one of the volunteer orientations: 224 nw 13th #305. August 3, 5:00PM, August 15, 1:00PM or August 19, 5:00PM

August 1 Symphony 1:Travelogue of the Locusts

Portland is home to half the world's rock stars, but lacking a major music school, it maintains an only respectable 21st century and experimental music community. But they are here, and have plenty rainy winter time to get good.

The Creative Music Guild, the PDX Classical Revolution, the Portland Cello Project and the late Music Population Orchestra are notable proponents of new music played on old instruments. Listen once live, and your ears will be forever changed in judging synthetic instrument samples. The technology to create poignant synthetic instrumental sounds, except maybe for a piano, is not yet here. So we are stuck for now with crunchy electro-style samples.

Tonight is your opportunity to break sonic barriers in hearing real instruments in service of new composition. Portland composers Mary Wright and Jody Hughes present their Symphony No. 1: Travelogue of Locusts played by the purpose-built New Portland Chamber Orchestra. It has been a collaboration two years in the making.

In the spirit that chamber music was the experimental pop music of its day, Wright and Hughes are undertaking a beautiful experiment with the players entering and leaving the sound field as they play.

Travelogue of the Locusts comprises twelve movements arranged by the time cycle of our circadian rhythm (that is not the 7 year cicadian rhythm familiar to Midwesterners).

There composers are internationally noted and are worth keeping track of in their development.

At Gallery Homeland www.galleryhomeland.org 2505 SE 11th x Division 7PM and 9 $5-10, kids free

July 31; August 1,7,8 Modern Dance Conduit

Dance performance is often classed as ballet, jazz or modern. Ballet is ballet and is about 500 years old. It has an accepted role in learned childhood experience, like sports. That creates a pipeline and an economic lifeline. It is very expensive to present and company dancers are often salaried. Jazz is rhythmic and chorus oriented, Broadway and backup dance for pop concerts would be examples. It originated with dance brought from Africa by slaves. It's about 200 years old. Modern is everything else. It's extensible and spans reprise of early modernists such as Martha Graham to anything-goes experimentalism.

With a small audience, it is similar to contemporary art, in that audiences stay away for fear of not getting it. In reality, watching it can just be a dream with freedom from interpretation. It is also an interesting audience exercise in how we read non-verbal communication.

Portland has several spaces where modern dance movers congregate: Body Vox Studio, Performance Works Northwest, The Headwaters Studio at Disjecta; and Conduit. Centrally located, Conduit is a long running space for rehearsal, classes and workshops in modern dance, contact improvisation, microtheater. It is a beautiful spot with downtown views and a nice floor for rent.

Conduit needs to raise some funds and so is putting on performances which are an interesting way to sample who is doing what in Portland.

The first weekend, July 31 and August 1, performers include Gavin Larsen from OBT, Gregg Bielemeier, Josie Moseley, the Key Turn Project, Linda Austin, Ben Asriel and Tere Mathern Dance- Saturday only.

The second weekend, August 7 and 8th, the performers are Anne Muller from OBT, POV Dance, Jim McGinn, James Healey, Oslund+Co Dance, Tere Mathern Dance- Friday only and Candace Bouchard & Adrian Fry from OBT- Saturday only.

It all takes place at Conduit Dance www.conduit-pdx.org 918 SW Yamhill, 4th Floor It's a fundraiser: $15-$100, in a small space holding about 30 - so advance tickets are at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/73965

July 23 PNCA MFA Show

The PNCA MFA program is hitting its stride and this is your opportunity to see the results. The show includes: Delaney Allen, Wayne Bund, Cathy Cleaver, Ben Ediger, Matthew Gruber, Allison Halter, Laura Hughes, Sydney Kim, Nathan Langner, Ruth Lantz, Luis Martinez-Rodriguez, Mindy McGovern, Nicole Milchak, Zack Rau, Jane Schiffhauer and Nashoba Temperly. Titled a very pre-bust Egocentric, the show opens at Disjecta www.disjecta.org 8371 N. Interstate opening 6PM-10 Free

July 18-19 (20) Alembic Space Films

Alembic is a performance series organized by performance superstar Linda Austin at pioneer FOPO outpost, Performance Works Northwest. Tonight's instance in the series is Temporary Roadmaps, films curated by Portland filmmaker Karl Lind. The program includes works of Portland artists Ed Mellnik, Stephanie Simek and Adam Keller. At Performance Works Northwest www.performanceworksnw.org 4625 SE 67th Friday and Saturday 8:30PM $8-10


Space is the Place is a low budget cult science fiction film staring experimental musician Sun Ra. Sun Ra began playing in 1940's Chicago. He was the first to use electronic keyboards and was a pioneer in large group improvization - free jazz. His group has been alternately named the Solar Arkestra, the Cosmo Discipline Arkestra, the Blue Universe Arkestra, the Jet Set Omniverse Arkestrathe, the Myth-Science Arkestra, and the Omniverse Arkestra. They perform in elaborate costumes with space mythology themes - Sun Ra claims to be born on Saturn and his birth certificate has never been found.

In the film, Sun Ra establishes a colony for Africans on Saturn then duals a pimp, the Overseer, over a game of cards for the future of the human race. This film is a gem - here is a clip. Recommended for all its weirdness and a look at 1972 on the West Coast.

Film at PSU's 5th Avenue Cinema 510 SW Hall Street
7:00PM, 9:30 Friday and Saturday 3PM Sunday Free PSU students, $2 for other students/seniors, $3 general and free popcorn

July 16 Japan Ignites 14 Sparks of Animated Copyright Perception

Tonight is the night when the superpower of being in many places symultaneously could come in handy.

Portland State University has a program in Japanese theater and tonight workshop students perform Kyogen plays. Kyogen is a form of classical Japanese theater first performed in the 1300's. Often topics are funny parables, think Falstaff. The sound effects are made by voice and part of the play, so for instance there is a vocalization for the sound a saw makes, it sounds nothing like a saw, but it is known to the audiences as the sound of a saw from studying Kyogen in Japanese schools. Often Kyogen was performed between Noh plays to provide a contrast to Noh's formalism. Tonight's performances are The Fortified Beard, Higeyagura and Bosan. The event is at Imago Theater, 17 SE 8th. 7PM Free


Ignite is a series of random short talks, sort of a hipster-geek Toastmaster's elevator pitch originated by O'Reilly, the tech book publisher with the exquisite line drawings of animals on the covers. The 6th Portland instance is tonight. The website details the talks, many surely to be entertaining. At the Bagdad Theater Doors 5:30PM, Program 7. Free


Small and modest is in. That is why the 14 Parcels project is so appealing. An all but completely abandoned and difficult building site in the North part of the South Waterfront will be host to 14 structures, small studios, designed by Portland and international architects. Small and beautiful. Tonight you can hear about it from architect, planner and builder Kevin Cavenaugh, at Design Within Reach. At DWR Portland Studio 1200 NW Everett. 6pm Free


Art Spark is a monthly get together for drinks and networking in the Portland art community. There is a short presentation of 6 minutes by a local art group, but the rest is purely interesting conversation. Tonight for the program filmmaker Andy Blubaugh will set up and film a short scene. The host is the NW Film Center, who are showing a rooftop film, the Marx Brothers 1933 comedy, Duck Soup, later in the same location. On the rooftop of Hotel deLuxe, 729 SW 15th. Art Spark 5pm-7; Film sometime after 8. Free


The PNCA international animation festival, Boundary Crossings, previously noted continues with a discussion of the creative process in animation by an Austin professor of animation and a creative director at LAIKA. At The Lab at Museum of Contemporary Craft, 724 NW Davis 6:30pm Free


Copyright is a sticky wicket. It is becoming increasingly divergent with Disney and others vociferously lobbying for expanded copyright protection, successfully, essentially indefinitely. It is largely ignored by samplers, and viewed askance by China. Meanwhile experts in digital rights management, technical means for controlling copying wonder if it will ever work effectively. In that spirit, "Free Culture: Creating Copyright and Coprighting Creativity" explores copyright and sampling. You, the audience will have the opportunity to remix copyright law in a Twitter mediated cooperative live online editing session. After there will be a discussion led by YACHT and copyright lawyer Peter Shavers. At the University of Oregon White Stag Building, 70 NW Couch Street 6:30pm Free


German printmaker MC Escher has a show at the Portland Art Museum now. In support of the exhibition there is a talk by Richard Taylor, University of Oregon professor of physics, psychology and art. He speaks on fractal patterns in the art of Escher and Jackson Pollock. At the Portland Art Museum www.pam.org 1219 SW Park 6PM $10, free members

July 13-July24 Boundry Crossings Animation Program

PNCA is hosting an international animation institute, Boundary Crossings. There are a variety of public presentations and exhibitions. Details at pnca.edu/boundarycrossings

July 13 Sustainable Building

Portland seeks to export sustainable building and planning as an economic development policy. It is working. An element of that plan is to construct a net-zero building as the center for sustainabilty studies, city and state offices of sustainability and public interest groups in Portland. It is the Oregon Sustainability Center.

We need to turn building around. Indigenous building from our cave dwelling days used renewable material. In rainy Africa adobe bricks of straw, mud and termite mounds form walls that can last nearly indefinitely when covered by well maintained thatched roofs. Those roofs are quieter in the rain than galvanized steel.

Meanwhile current buildings are expensive and have very short lives. The most expensive home parts, bathrooms and kitchens, have only an approximate 15-20 year design life, while their functional life is potentially much, much longer. Building and demolition generates up to a third of solid waste. Cement production creates 5% of global carbon dioxide emissions and is a major source of airborne mercury in Oregon. Building materials consume large amounts of energy in their manufacture. About 40% of energy is used in buildings.

We have a long way for the lives of buildings to become sustainable.

Tonight's talk is on the design of a sustainable building for the sustainability center. Ralph DiNola of Green Building Services and Dennis Wilde of Gerding Edlen Development will present the current design and discuss the challenges resolved and yet to be resolved. It is part of the Bright Lights series sponsored by the local architecture magazine Portland Spaces and the City Club, a thoughtful public interest group.

At Jimmy Mak's, 221 NW 10th. Doors 5:30PM, discussion 6. Free

July 10 Portrait of Portraits and Korean Art

Korean art has a long history, yet the contemporary art of Korea is not well known. The father of video art is Korean Nam Jun Paik. That was then, this is now. Gallery Homeland updates Portland with an up to the minute show by Eun-young Cho, Sahm-kwon Kim, Jihee Kim, Yang-hee Kim, Duk Hwan Jo, Hyunmin Lee, Keum Aeng Seo, Jooahn Kwon, Ji Eun and Joowon Lee. Korean art shows are reaching US and the UK in 2009, echoing the discovery of Chinese art by the West in the mid-1990's. It will be a fascinating opportunity to sample the thoughts of artists living on the fault line of economic change and a divided country with the highest penetration of high speed Internet in the world, far surpassing the United States. It's at Gallery Homeland www.galleryhomeland.org 2505 SE 11th x Division


Long time Portland gallerist, Mark Woolley, turns his eye to curation with a show, Portraits. Included are many artists who have been mentioned here including Holly Andres, Tim Gunther, Stewart Harvey, Wei Hsueh, Jacob Pander, Christopher Rauschenberg, Alicia Rose, Gus Van Sant Terry Toedtemeyer and Carol Yarrow. Many are Portland multi-creatives spanning visual art, music, geology and filmmaking, not a new phenomena in Portland. At WorksoundPDX www.worksoundpdx.com 820 SE Alder


Meanwhile 23 Sandy reprises last Friday's soft opening with the surreal mashup of Chris Haberman's mad tea party - Alice in Wonderland themed painting - and Jessica Spring's horse show. At www.23sandy.com 623 NE 23 x Sandy

July 8 Taco Bell Drawing Club

It is national movement, including here. The next meetup is tonight. The Taco Bell Drawing Club will be held at 725 NE Weidler. Bring pencil and paper. 6PM-7:30 Free

July 2 Westside Art Openings

I always recommend the Everett Lofts for ever changing viewing pleasure. I resist individual listings because they are more time consuming to compile than the time you could devote to just seeing everything. Nonetheless SEA Change has a political installation work about Congo, an African interest of mine.

Based on research by Portlander's Casey Bush and Joshua Seeds, Ryan Burns has created a mediation on mining in Eastern Congo, "Profane Relics--- An Ossuary of the Congo Mineral Wars". That is adjacent to Rwanda and intertwined in the 1994 genocide.

Congo has deposits of gold, diamonds and tantalum ore, all a perverse curse on everyday life. Tantalum is an ingredient in chip capacitors used to manage the characteristics of high speed electrical signals in almost all electronic equipment.

The show opens tonight and is open weekend hours throughout the month. SEA Change hosts a Congolese dinner and public brainstorming session July 11 facilitated by Mercy Corps and Run for Congo Women. One direct solution is expanded recycling of electronics, and the gallery hosts mobile phone recycling this month by Eco-Cell. RSVP for the dinner and discussion at seagallery at gmail.

At SEA Change Gallery seagallery.wordpress.com in the Everett Lofts on the Everett side, corner of NW Broadway opening 6PM-10. Dinner discussion Saturday July 11, 5PM-7, RSVP please. Free


Across the Hall is the space shared by Rod Pulliam and Jane Beebe in the former Pulliam Deffenbaugh gallery space. This month they present a group show Catch All. The show includes Brad Adkins, Monica Angle, Lydia Beebe, Victoria Haven, Philip Iosca, Vanessa Johnson, Jeff Keller, Justin L'Amie, James Lavadour, Raymond Meeks, Vanessa Renwick, Adam Sorensen, Storm Tharp and Marie Watt. At Across the Hall 925 NW Flanders 6PM-8


For some summer excitement Midori Hirose & Joshua Orion Kermiet collaborate in installation at Fontanelle. Fun! At Fontanelle Gallery www.fontanellegallery.com 205 SW Pine


At Compound there is an all woman show Pink Attitude comprising Anneli Olander, Candy Bird, Pink Sublime, Cikita Z, Isa Duval, Msss Kikao, B9 and Fawn Gehweiler. At Compound Gallery www.compoundgallery.com 107 NW 5th


Lorna Nakell who started with illustrated meal paintings has returned to domestic themes in illustration style. See at Beppu Wiarda www.beppugallery.com 319 NW 9th


Dana Dart McClean, Meg Peterson & Brenna Murphy are at Valentines with DJ Cuica spinning Jamaican & Brazilian summer dreams later. At Valentines myspace.com/valentineslifeblood 232 SW Ankeny Art 6PM, party 9:30


Powells has a sure to be odd photo show documenting commune life in 1970's Los Angeles. Cult leader Father Yod, with 14 wives and 100 followers living in a Beverly Hills mansion, drove a Rolls and led a psychadelic band Ya Ho Wa 13, recording limited vinyl pressings sold for $1 at the commune's organic vegetarian restaurant in Laurel Canyon popular with pop luminaries of the time. In 1975, with no training, Yod died in Hawaii on his first hang gliding experience. I am not making this up. The commune carries on as www.yahowha.org. Wednesday the 8th, the commune's documentarians Isis Aquarian and Electricity Aquarian read from a book and show films of the commune's history at 7:30PM At Powell's Books 3rd floor, 10th and W Burnside


Blue Sky has photographs of urban China as noted above and photographs by Amy Stein documenting our interaction with animals, some wild. At Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org 122 NW 8th

July 1 China Photos and Motovational Speech

In a participatory prelude to Friday's opening, join in a special "extra credit" event, a book signing, motivational speech and coloring book party by well known artist illustrator Mike Perry. At Grass Hut www.grasshutcorp.com 811 E Burnside 6PM-9


City of Ambition - Fast Forward is a body of photos of Chongqing by Swiss photographer Ferit Kuyas. Chongqing is a very large city in a small province in central China which was the capital in WWII owing to the Japanese invasion. At a population of 32 million, it may surpass Bejing and Shanghai in size by 2020. Kuyas documents that growth of this industrial town set amid mountains incidentally once home to Buddhist monasteries. Tonight Kuyas speaks on his experiences and photography there. At Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org 122 NW 8th 6:30PM


The first meeting of the Portland Taco Bell Drawing Club will be held at 725 NE Weidler 5:30PM-7

June 25-26 Water in the Desert Performances

Butoh dance is a recurring interest here. Friday and Saturday is a performance festival of Butoh artists from San Francisco, Seattle, Boulder and Portland along with Portland dancers pursuing independent vectors. It is a perfect opportunity to see butoh in contrast to some related forms. Friday evening Koichi & Hiroko Tamano with their Harupin-Ha Butoh Theatre, Japanese folk dancers from Portland Taiko, PSU’s Kyogen Theatre, Sahomi Tachibana Dancers, Cydney Wilkes and Sheri Brown + Douglas Ridings perform. Saturday it is Mizu Desierto Butoh Theatre, Syzygy Butoh, Christina Braun of SF Butoh Lab, Bad Unkl Sista, Wobbly, Theory1:Dance and Linda K. Johnson.

The Tamanos are very early butoh performers from Japan who worked with the founder of butoh in the 1960's. Forming his own company in Japan in 1972, Koichi Tamano and his wife Hiroko Tamano then came to San Francisco and performed the first butoh performance in the United States in 1976. In 1996 he was named as a national treasure by the Emperor of Japan. The Tamano's have been leading a workshop this week and the students will be incorporated into the performance. This is a very rare opportunity to see them. Kyogen theater provides a touchpoint to another traditional Japanese theater form in contrast. Sahomi Tachibana is a Portland teacher of traditional Japanese dance. Her troupe performs traditional buyo dance. Cydney Wilkes is a gifted Portland performer who has drawn upon landscape for outdoor performances as well as electrifying duets with Mike Barber. For the Festival she has recreated a piece in the style of Mary Wigman, a German expressionist modern dancer who inspired the creators of butoh. Sheri Brown and Douglas Ridings from Seattle started with Joan Laage and have developed powerful solo practices and collaborations.

Mizu Desierto is a gifted performer and excels in creating fantastic performances. She is also a great organizer, even of untrained dancers, and is the creator and organizer of the festival. Syzygy Butoh joins us from Boulder, Colorado. Christina Braun has many years of Duncan training as well as studying with Katsura Kan, Anzu Furukawa, Yoshito and Kazue Ohno, Akira Kasai, and Yumiko Yoshiokao. She is founder of the SF Butoh Lab and organizer of the current SF Butoh Festival. Bad Unkl Sista is a long time collaborator with Mizu Desierto. She is creator of fantastic costumes. Wobbly is a collaboration of partners Eric Ferguson and Yulia Arakelyan who have broken barriers in movement for those beyond the conventional concept of the dancer's body. Theory1:Dance is the creation of Portland dancers Tracy Broyles and Meshi Chavez. Linda K. Johnson is a modern dancer, artist and organizer in Portland's art world.

Details on the performances may be found at waterinthedesertfestival.org. At the Portland Center for the Performing Arts Winningstad Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway. $25 each evening; students, artists & seniors $18; (both nights: $35 available at the PCPA Box office only)

June 25 Floating World Animation Festival

Portland is the Floating World sometimes, yukio. Edo novelist Asai Ryōi describes in his tale, Ukiyo Monogatari, a floating world in which Buddhist transcendence focused on the next life was replaced by a transcendence based upon living this life as if each day was the last. When Ryōi wrote, Kyoto was the capital, a city of creativity, craftsmaship, art, gardens and pleasure, maybe not unlike Portland.

The Floating World is also a comics store here. Tonight they offer an animation festival for your pleasure. There is a continuity between sit down cinema, music visuals and video art and this material spans all. Animators Yoshi Sodeoka, David O Reilly, Bruno Dicolla, Barry Doupe, Kirsten Lepore, Tim & Eric Wareheim, Eric Fensler, Doug Lussenhop, Devin Flynn, Aids 3-D and Hazel Hill produce psychedelic animations. Accompanied by musicians MEGA*CHURCH, Flaspar link and DJ Bobby Dangerous.

At Holocene www.holocene.org 1001 SE Morrison 8:30PM $7

June 25, 26, 27 String Quartets

I am not an expert in Euro-American classical music, but I was lucky to hear a lot working for the music school. It is magical to hear live in a good wood hall, it's a different experience once it passes through a microphone then the chains of compression to something like an MP3. The Guarneri Quartet has been playing together since 1964, with one personnel change, this is their last year. All teach at Curtis, America's finest school of classical music, they have the Philadelphia sound and 45 years of musical mind meld. Their last performance in the Northwest is at Reed College Thursday and Saturday. Friday a documentary film screens, with the quartet in attendance. Presented by Chamber Music Northwest cmnw.org Film at the NW Film Center 8 Friday $10-30, 7PM Performance Thursday and Saturday $10-43 8PM

June 24 French View on Store

Tonight Philippe Blanc speaks his thoughts on "The Strategy of Sur-Distinction: building a cathedral inside the megastore". Blanc is an artist with a mastery of computers in art, from game art to wry comments on our physical computing culture with an installation at Fresh Trouble. Bringing the unique French philosiphical viewpoint to Store for a Month www.storeforamonth.com 1216 SE Division 7PM Free

June 20 Milepost 5 Tea Speaks Lightness and Shadows

Milepost 5 has the graphic photo work of Justin Gorman; paintings by Anthony Conrad and Luke Heinrich; art by Kalina Torino and sculpture by Jessica Weitzel. At Milepost 5 www.milepostfive.com 900 NE 81st (go by MAX) 7PM-9 Free


In the alt-words arena, In Other Words bookstore hosts Michelle Tea. 8 NE Killingsworth 7PM $5-10


Meanwhile 2GQ presents a broad spectrum art event, Light and Shadows, incidental to the Solstace at Yoga Shala. Details at www.2gq.org Event at Yoga Shala N 3808 N. Williams 7PM-midnight $5-20

June 19 Fourteen30 Summer Group Show

Fourteen 30 Contemporary opens its summer group show this evening with Mike Bray, David Corbwtt, Hamlett Dobbins, Alex Felton, Corey Lunn, Jenene Nagy, Devon Oder, Nicholas Pittman, Patrick Rock, Jennifer Shimatsu and Nick Van Woert. It is a big show, meaning limited pieces by each artist. Don't be afraid to inquire about their other works. At Fourteen30 Gallery www.fourteen30.com 1430 SE 3rd 6PM-9 Free

June 18 Vinyl Store Nowhere Words

Stephanie Simek and Adam Keller are brilliant creatives and creators of Rererato, the space where experimental music and an experimental art gallery came together for a time.

Stephanie's art, sculpture, sound and performance facets become one in an event tonight. She has cut a vinyl disk with sounds from the "jungle, lovemaking, space, and hypnotic instructions" and built her own turntable to play it. Eight tone arms with needles connected to contact pickups sample the disk's tracks and are mixed by the artist into a unique soundscape tonight only.

At the FalseFront Studio www.falsefrontstudio.com 4518 NE 32nd 8PM Free


The Store for a Month is a fantastic maze of an arcade with art, small to large, you can afford - or even make in the studio with a collection of art-making material. Proprietor-creator John Brodie talks about the store in the context of Claes Oldenburg’s “The Store”, 1961-62 tonight. www.storeforamonth.com Talk at the Artemis Cafe 1235 SE Division, and visit to the the Store for a Month, 1216 SE Division, after. Talk 6PM, store 7 Free


The Nowhere collective is Matt McCalmont, Brennan Conaway and Charissa Nile, all of whom have done projects at the Center for Land Use Interpretation outpost in Wendover, Utah. It is a little nowhere, but at closer look yields rich creative ingredients. They speak tonight as part of Art Spark, and informal gettogether of creative art world people here. www.portlandartspark.com At Rontoms 600 E Burnside 5PM-7, short talk at 6 Free


Disjecta and Tin House present Arty Words II: music, art and readings by authors. Author and editor Jon Raymond, cofounder of Plazm and author of Half-Life, Livability and Old Joy joins Zak Smith, illustrator, writer for an evening of regional folk tales. Music by Quasi. At Disjecta www.disjecta.org 8371 N. Interstate 7:30PM $7

June 18 Deeper Smart Grid Seminar

The smart grid is a new way of thinking born of necessity and possibility. Yesterday electricity was made in large distant plants. They burned the dinosaur remains of eons of sunlight stored by plantlife. They captured heat from the decay of elements like uranium. Or they slowed, for a moment, the gravity imperative of rivers seeking unity with oceans.

The big plants fed power through very high voltage transmission lines, the major arteries, to smaller and smaller capillaries connected to your neighborhood. It was returned through the earth whenever you turned on a light switch or the washing machine. The big plants needed to make at least as much power as the unpredictable instantaneous demand.

All this is changing. Thousands of small power plants - wind turbines, geothermal plants and solar farms are now feeding in power at the capillaries. The capability exists for variable power pricing, controlled by you, or maybe your smart clothes dryer, which can take a break when power is expensive. Plug in cars can store energy then release it back to the grid at any point there is an outlet.

The smart grid is a network of tiny computers built into your electric meter, heating, cooling, major appliances and car. They will communicate to measure how electricity is used, manage its use wisely and give you information to make decisions. Maybe they will communicate with your mobile phone. Scale wise, the number of smart grid computers required in the US is about the total number already on the Internet, worldwide. It is a perfect challenging project.

Will all of those meter readers will be replaced by legions of customer support people helping you run virus scans on your dishwasher? No, the system will need to be designed to be so reliable and secure that it should never be necessary.

Today Portland State University sponsors a seminar on the smart grid. It's all day and registration is required. But there is no charge. All the information is at http://www.extended.pdx.edu/nwsmartgrid/ 8:30AM-5PM Free

June 17 Films Chicago to Portland

There is a rich creative interchange between Chicago and Portland. Many Portland artists have been schooled there at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Tonight's film exchange is organized by Lori Felker of Chicago and and Ben Popp of Portland, who also ogranized Filmed by Bike. Included are films from Portland's Crispin Rosenkranz and Pippa Possible who are in Chicago studying at the school. At Performance Works Northwest www.performanceworksnw.org 4625 SE 67th 9PM Free

June 14 Father and Son Sitar Performance

The sitar is an magical instrument with main strings played on adjustable frets and sympathetic strings adding a response. It is a difficult instrument to master. It is a devotion. A spiritual experience to play, and to listen. Tonight father and son, Pandit Shivanath Mishra Deobrat Mishra, play sitar together, accompanied by tabla master Mahapunya Das. The program includes ragas, Indian classical music, plus less formal folk music.

This is a great opportunity to experience Indian music in an intimate environment. At Yoga Shala North 3808 N. Williams. reception at 6:30PM, performance 7:30. $10 advance, $15 – 20 day of

June 14 It's Possible - PSU MFA Big Show at Disjecta

Portland State University has been quietly building its MFA program. Each MFA student has shown in PSU galleries on a compressed schedule. Tonight there is an opportunity to see many in one place and at one time. It is a mix of studio art and the documentation of social practice art. Artists Katy Asher, Steve Baggs, Vanessa Calvert, Varinthorn Christopher, Damien Gilley, Bethany Hays, Avalon Kalin, Laurel Kurtz, Sandy Sampson, Rebecca Shelly, Cyrus Smith and Eric Steen show their work. All at Disjecta www.disjecta.org 8371 N. Interstate opening 4PM-7 Free

June 14 DorkbotPDX Talks

Dorkbot is people doing strange things with electricity. It's an international DIY movement. Electricity craft, if you like - and art. It is something you can do. Portland Dorkbot has informal monthly meetups, workshops and a lecture series.

Tonight is DorkbotPDX 0x03. In their own words:

"HURRY HURRY STEP RIGHT UP! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ___ ___ _____ / _ \ __ __ / _ \ |___ / DORKBOT | | | | \ \/ / | | | | |_ \ PDX | |_| | > < | |_| | ___) | \___/ /_/\_\ \___/ |____/ http://dorkbotpdx.org/dorkbotpdx_0x03 Dorkbot PDX [[People doing strange things with electricity...in Portland]] ...welcomes you to the 4th installation of its lecture series. * Where: AboutUs: 107 SE Washington St, Suite 520. * When: Sunday, June 14th, 2009 - 7pm As always, the event is free and open to the public. Feel free to bring snacks and beverages to share. Please spread the word! Andrew S. Parnell ----------------- Pieces to be discussed include Semaphore-bot, Tangólumen, and Cardiolumen: a multifaceted exploration of the data we create both consciously and unconsciously and their inherent value. Andrew S. Parnell is a Portland based digital artist. His work primarily deals with the physical manifestation of digital information using code, image capture, and electronics. Michael Bunsen -------------- Dome Control: Altering a space via physical and web-based interfaces Michael Bunsen spends most of his time on the internet but is more interested in nature and the outside world. He developed Urbanedibles.org and began exploring microcontrollers to cultivate his mission of using the computer to get people off the computer. Dan Gilsdorf ------------ A presentation featuring works from 2006 to the present, including the recent exhibitions Interiotrope, 2008 and SRO Video, 2009. Dan Gilsdorf is a sculptor and installation artist based in Portland. Using video, sound, and mechanics, his work addresses the mediating effect of technology on physical and cultural landscapes. See you there!

A Dorkbot event. www.dorkbotpdx.org Generously hosted by AboutUs www.aboutus.org at 107 SE Washington St, Suite 520. 7pm Free

June 13 Our Farm Is Real

Project Grow is a practical social practice project involving farming, yoga, music and art for a community including people with developmental disabilities. It is one Portland instance of socially conscious social practice art. It is what we need now.

Project Grow has taken a brown field vacant lot and made a permaculture-inspired farm replete with goats, chickens, vegetables and a chicken coup that rivals the Riverdale School in architectural significance. It is all part of a micro CSA, organized by social practice artists and activists connected to PSU and the Art Institute of Chicago - the social practice art movement is broad and deep. Through Project Grow, the clients of the adjacent sheltered workshop are expanding beyond traditional factory work to vegetable gardening and making art. Project Grow has assembled a community to help out, including Street Yoga.

Tonight at the site, there will be music by Inside Voices, Why We Must Be Careful and DJ Janet Weiss. They will show a great documentary Growing Awareness tracing the evolution of community supported agriculture - CSA.


At the Port City Development Center. 2124 N Williams Ave at Tillamook. Enter in the back of the building on either Tillamook or Thompson

Salon reception 5PM-7:30, film 7:30PM Free

June 13-July 28 Summer Institute of Movement at the Headwaters & PSU

Portland has a concentration of amazing movement artists. Some of them have gathered around the Headwaters Studio which shares a space with Disjecta. Their summer festival of workshops and performances is now.

The workshops include Shadow Yoga, Javanese dance, seeing while moving, butoh, ego and the subconscious in performance and Kyogen theater from Japan. All taught by gifted teachers from here and a distance.

All the details including discounts for registering for several workshops are at the Headwaters website. Workshops take place at at the Headwaters studio and Portland State University, where some workshops may be taken for credit. Keep and eye out here for public performances, some free. Headwaters Studio theheadwaters.net/programs/ 8371 N. Interstate

June 12 Jamin London Tinsel and Friends @ Choir

Jamin London Tinsel is a sculptor and performer. Tonight she shows her work try pod at Q is for Choir, the record and stuff shop on Clinton. Her performances revolve around eating connected to her sculptures, which is a good complement to the Portland social practice art movement. Avery Thatcher and Bren Boseman have work in the three person show. At 2510 SE Clinton opening 6PM-9 and up for a while store hours which are roughly w-f 4-7 and s-s 11-7

June 11 Design Jobs Discussion Network

Design is getting better, meaning more considered of the tribal aesthetic values of its audience(s). The tribes are pretty broad because the mediasphere, and our dense cities, mean just about everyone has seen Apple design, for example, and considers it favorably. Northern Italian design is increasingly successfully challenged by Portland design.

The design of objects spans one of a kind, few of a kind and many of a kind. As the numbers increase, the employment leverage is magnified - you can get a job as an "industrial designer". That is the realm of Core77 and its companion Coroflot.

Today is a Coroflot road show of sorts cosponsored by OfficePDX, Filter, Ziba and the University of Oregon. It starts with networking, then a panel discussion by Kirk James, Creative Director, Cinco Design; Nick Oakley, Industrial Design Lead, Mobility Group, Intel; Beth Sasseen, Senior Design Recruiter, Nike and Chelsea Vandiver, Head of Communications Design Group, Ziba Design. The topic will be hiring and retaining top creative talent, portfolio review and interviews, and building effective networks for filling positions. The afternoon will finish with cocktails.

At the University of Oregon White Stag Building, 70 NW Couch. Meet & Greet 2:30PM-3:30; Panel Discussion 3:30PM-4:30; Reception 4:30PM-6. $40

June 10 ICFF Report and Found Live!

ICFF is the big furniture design show in New York. OfficePDX went there so you don't have to. Tonight they report out on what they saw. RSVP to shop@officepdx.com At OfficePDX www.officepdx.com 2204 NE Alberta 6PM-8 Free

I dig Found. Its been written about before here. Tonight is the next instance of the guaranteed highly entertaining Found road show, the live stories of found notes, papers and photos. The Portland event is found sandwiched between the Seattle Crocodile, the Camas Freedom High, the Las Vegas Palms Casino and Sam Bond's Garage in Eugene! Hear Found stories at the Doug Fir Lounge. 9PM Sharp $10

June 9 Thoughts on Design Objectified

Gary Hustwit is known for his documentary Helvetica, on type deign, which premiered at the 2007 Portland Experimental and Documentary Film Festival. His new film, Objectified, directs the same gaze at the world of industrial design. Design as brand emerged in the early millenium as an evoloution of brand memes of the '90's. Writers like Kevin Roberts, Tom Peters and many others celebrated the emergence of design as the dominant brand ingredient. Meanwhile, the great Teruo Kurosaki elevated designers themselves to brands. This film is the result.

Hustwit interviews designers on their work and shows them at work. It's one of those mysterious processes that produces beautiful things.

Tonight's film, which premered at SXSW, is sponsored by the local AIGA and ISDA chapters. The filmmaker will be in attendance for a discussion. Previous reviewers have noted a good dose of caffeine might be required of all viewers, excepting dedicated acolytes of design - or just see it when it comes out on video in about 18 months.

At Cinema 21. 7PM Tickets $20, student and AIGA or ISDA members $15.

June 8 What's the Big Plan? (For Portland)

The Bright Light series is sponsored by the City Club of Portland and Portland Spaces magazine. It's a gathering spot for planners and architects to hear from speakers on planning and architecture.

Portland has had a series of "big plans". The 1904 Olmsted plan established Skyline, Terwilliger and Willamette Boulevards; Tryon Creek, Mt Tabor, Forest, Laurelhurst, Washington and other Parks, as well as Ladd's Addition. A 1932 plan proposed a Westside Waterfront Park and what became the urban growth boundary. Lewis Mumford's 1938 plan proposed a collective of Portland and surrounding towns, presaging Metro. The 1966 plan proposed a neighborhood orientation, eventually contributing to Portland's neighborhood associations; and now, the 20 minute walk goal for the distance between home and neighborhood services. The 1972 plan, influenced by the ideas of Jane Jacobs, led to the Transit Mall and Pioneer Courthouse Square replacing a parking garage. The 1988 plan resulted in the streetcar, the Pearl District, Eastbank Esplanade and large scale expansion of housing in the central city.

Of course not every aspect of these plans were carried out, that is the nature of the process. For instance, Robert Moses proposed a grid of Portland super highways in 1943 - the Going-Prescott Freeway, the East 30th Freeway, 82nd Avenue Freeway, McAdam Freeway, the Multnomah-Sellwood-Johnson Creek Freeway, St Helens Freeway and the SE Clinton-28th-Powell Freeway to Gresham, with convenient interchanges at 11th/12th, 39th, 52nd and 82nd. It was proposed to be an interstate highway. Luckily they were never built. (There is some controversy about exactly what Moses proposed and how the highway department adapted it, but this 1966 map of the Mt Hood Freeway is a monster!)

The result of all this planning, built and unbuilt, is one of the most livable cities in North America and an internationally known school of planning at PSU.

The Portland Planning Bureau has just merged with the Portland Sustainability Bureau. Susan Anderson, former head of the Sustainability Bureau, is now responsible for the combined bureau. What is her plan? How will it shape Portland as have previous "big plans"?

Find out this evening. (And for something completely different, the Village Building Convergence is going on now too)

Susan Anderson speaks at the Bright Lights Series. At Jimmy Mak's, 221 NW 10th. Doors 5:30PM, discussion 6. Free

June 6 Films on Landscape by James Benning

James Benning is an influential experimental filmmaker known for long shots in work themed on landscape. His latest, and maybe last film, RR - railroad screens tonight. In the case of rain, the show will be in the Cinema Project space. If the weather is fair, meet at the space before 9PM and the group will proceed to the secret outdoor showing location. www.cinemaproject.org 11 NW 13th 9PM Sharp

June 5 Eastside Art Openings

In Portland art is everywhere. Including at skate shops. Cal's Pharmacy and The Department of Skateboarding Art Department hosts the first annual North County Invitational. Artists Jo Jackson, Andy Jenkins, Chris Johanson, Jason Lee, Chris Pastras, Clint Peterson, Russ Pope, Roger Seliner and Tobin Yelland are in a fierce competition with gravity to determine who is the top artist. At Cal’s Pharmacy www.departmentofskateboarding.com 11 Ne Hancock 7PM-10


Pop up shops have been itinerant blips on the pop culture radar screen for some time. Not so much in Portland, excepting some by Seaplane. That should change. It is, with Store for a Month.

Store for a Month is that and a studio experiment by artist John Brodie. Artists Holly Andres, Carl Annala, Josh Arseneau, Gordon Barnes, Philippe Blanc, John Brodie, James Boulton, Calvin Ross Carl, Benjamin Alexander Clark, David Corbett, Kerry Davis, Shelby Davis, Melia Donovan, Cary Doucette, Arcy Douglass, Anna Fidler, Danridge Geiger, Ellen George, Nathan Gibson, Damien Gilley, Jennifer Gleach, Kate Greiner, Anne Greenwood, Cecilia Hallinan, Henry Ham, Stephen Hayes, Jesse Hayward, Sean Healy, Harvest Henderson, Scott Wayne Indiana, Philip Iosca, Susan Klein, Kristan Kennedy, Cynthia Lahti, Gabriel Liston, Rhoda London, Joe Macca, Victor Maldonado, Pete McCracken, Trevor McGee, Cris Moss, Angela Muldoon, Aaron Murray, Jenene Nagy, Giles Neale, Jim Neidhardt, TJ Norris, Melody Owen, Dhani Rosa, Jack Dingo Ryan, Paige Saez, Blair Saxon-Hill, Richard Schemmerer, Crystal Schenk, Heidi Schwegler, Scrappers, Ashley Sloan, Josh Smith, Sika Stanton, Storm Tharp, Annette Thurston, Joe Thurston, Marie Watt, Carol Yarrow and Kathan Zerzan have all made work for the store. Brodie will be using the space as his studio throughout the month. Some of the artists will stop by throughout the month to make work. There will even be some baking of pies.

Store for a Month www.storeforamonth.com 1216 SE Division. Opening 6PM-10 Check the web site for hours, studio schedules and pies!



Lighthearted neomysticism is a current meme in art. It is new age mysticism remixed with antiserious intent. This show, Superstition, captures the vibe. Artists Aaron Piland, Jesse Brown, Ryan Bubnis, Cody Hudson, Brandi Strickland, Emma Trithart and Betsy Walton provide their own superstition for your art viewing pleasure. At Nemo Design www.studionemo.com 1875 SE Belmont



Natalie Phillips is cowinner this month of the copywriting award, with an interview:

"Q: So were you able to find a job in Portland or are you strictly a starving artist?
A: I was a waitress but I got fired almost immediately (for being a terrible waitress).

Q: What are you impressions of the Portland art scene so far?
A: Cool art is really spread out around here…you can see something tucked away in a little coffee shop that’s just as good as a big show downtown, if not better.

Q: You recently graduated from art school – what was that experience like for you? How did it influence your artwork?
A: Art school was frustrating because so much of my education was conceptual. I didn’t get a lot of the technical skills I wanted originally, so I’ve had to teach myself a lot. You can see this in my complete failure to understand the basic rules of perspective.

Q: If someone gave you a $10,000 grant to work on any crazy creative project you wanted, what would you do with that money?
A: I’d buy out Paxton Gate, the taxidermy store in SF, and do detailed oil paintings of all the animals. Then I’d paint the animals and pose them threateningly in front of the paintings.

Q: If you weren’t an artist, what do you think you might be doing instead?
A: I don’t have many other skills, so I’d probably be an on call daytime stripper…huddled in the back, afraid of the patrons."

At Breezeblock www.breezeblockgallery.com Gallery 1847 E. Burnside



In the 811 E Burnside block

Redux is also cowinner of the copywriting award of the month: "I strongly believe that what you're happiest doing at five is what you will be happiest doing your entire life. Growing up, I endlessly drew and embroidered onto washcloths that my grandma gave me little creatures and animals that I desperately wanted to live in the woods of my backyard. In my mind these creatures had tiny, magnificent, ornate lairs in the trunks of old trees (which I also drew, along with maps of how to get there). And although these creatures were elusive and shy, they always decided to befriend me. Over the years, my creatures have become decidedly more design-driven, but a part of me is still just drawing little friends to have" - Ashley Goldberg; who, along with Drew Bell present work tonight in a show: Repetition Makes the Heart Grow Fonder. At Redux www.reduxpdx.com

Warmholes is a group show tackling time and space by Arbito, Brent Wick, Jessie Rose Vala, Scott Patt, APAK, Ferris Plock, Kelly Tunstal, Martin Ontiveros, Bwana Spoons, Josh Herbolsheimer, Elizabeth Haidle, Eatcho, Shawn Wolfe, Zack Soto, Michael Isaac Bushkin, Amy Rupel, Evan Harris, Kiyoshi Nakazawa, Carson Ellis and Jerome Powers. It should be all happy summer artwork. At Grass Hut www.grasshutcorp.com

Meanwhile in the back parking lot of the 811, magazine in|ur, Intentionally Urban, celebrates a year of publishing. The magazine is focused on demonstrating sustainability in materials and life are not mutually exclusive of good design. Music by A Simple Colony and Sleepy Bell.



City Body Dust includes artists Laura Foxman, Matthew Letzetler, Arrington De Dionyso and William Rihel with opening night music at 10 by Gavin Castleton and ...PISS, the Rocksbox house band. At WorksoundPDX www.worksoundpdx.com 820 SE Alder



Artist architect Ben Stagl has a solo show of video, sculpture and print work. For this show, he was inspired by folding, as in paper, from a process, product and philisophical viewpoint. A an engaging description which will make you very curious about the work is at the Gallery Homeland website. At Gallery Homeland www.galleryhomeland.org 2505 SE 11th x Division



Rikki Rothenberg has a cat themed show at Nationale. Cat lovers love their cats. Rothenberg is also a co-founder of the dance group Woolly Mammoth Comes to Dinner, a dance group which will perform the opening. Opening at NATIONALE nationaleportland.blogspot.com 2730 E Burnside 6PM-9



Liz Obert shows Cybernetic Landscapes, meditations on how we carry and use mobile devices such as phones, cameras, navigation units, in the natural landscape, at least until the power is consumed. Technology adoption is generational and what is strange today to some will be commonplace tomorrow. At Pushdot Studio www.pushdotstudio.com 1021 SE Caruthers



Tired of looking and want to move? The Disjecta complex includes artist studios and a movement studio, The Headwaters. The studio is open tonight beginning at 7 for demonstrations of butoh, shadow yoga and Viewpoints Lab - all summer class options. Then there is a big dance party afterwards. At The Headwaters www.theheadwaters.net 8371 N. Interstate 7PM Free

June 4 Westside Art Openings

Caldera is an in city and mountain art retreat program for children. Kids who would otherwise miss art programs work along side international class artists and mentors. It is truly art changing the world, one person at a time. Established artists too spend time in the Cascades creating work as the snow falls.

Words Without Walls is organized around art that starts as word. It may evolve into poetry, song, visual work or movement. Tonight is a public presentation of the result.

W+K Words Without Walls www.calderaarts.org At the ad agency. 224 NW 13th 6PM-10


Rwanda is a small country. But it occupies a place high on the list in the late 20th century of tragic events, and their consequence. I was near the border a few weeks after, but had blocked it from my mind for a variety of good reasons. Occasional gunfire could be heard and we were not allowed to photograph the refugee camps in Uganda. It was only later, by reading, that the dimensions of what happened became clearer. Tonight Blue Sky shows photographer Jonathan Torgovnik's Intended Consequences. It is a dimension of the event in the form of portraits of mothers and their children born of rape at the time. Each is accompanied by their story. Julie Denesha also shows photographs of Roma settlements in Slovakia. Denesha speaks of her work June 6 at 3PM. At Blue Sky Gallery www.blueskygallery.org 122 NW 8th


Eugenia Pardue makes baroque relief paintings, often in monochrome. Her work shows in the Portland Center Stage's Gerding Theater Armory, accompanying the play Grey Gardens www.pcs.org/greygardens. 128 NW 11th. Reception 5:30PM-7


DE May is a shy minimalist maker of mixed media work. The work is in its element at PDX Contemporary Art. At PDX Contemporary Gallery www.pdxcontemporaryart.com 925 NW Flanders


Strange Bedfellows is an International Collaboration between Japan and Portland artists. That doesn't seem so strange. Art pairs include Mhak + Zach Johnson, Cho Chan + Mona Superhero, Shiori Kawamoto + Geneva Smith, Makiko Sugawa + Christopher Ross, Oeil + J Shea, Naoshi + Martin Ontiveros, Kaz + Robert Pellicer, Tenga + Tom Webb, Sowl + Eatcho, Jun Inoue + Damon Soule, Nishi + Jen Lobo, Jon Jon Green + Jason Graham and Yohei Takahashi + Keegan Onefoot. Should be a great show! At Compound Gallery www.compoundgallery.com 107 NW 5th


Carye Bye is a great tour guide to hidden Portland. She organizes bike rides and prints at the IPRC. She maintains an online museum of postcards related to bathtubs. Combining all of those ideas she presents an illustrated limited edition book, Hidden Portland: The Museums. It is a guide to some of Portland's unique museums like the vacuum cleaner museum.

Bye presents her book tonight. The original illustrations for the book are for sale too. It is at Reading Frenzy www.readingfrenzy.com 921 SW Oak. Talk at 6PM


Green Oregon and Town and Country are a pair of group shows meditating on what we think the Oregon landscape is. Froelick's Town and Country, Oregon at 150 includes conventional landscape work by Chris Bennett, Patricia Bognar, Eric Bowman, Leiv Fagereng, Paul Fardig, Kevin Farrell, Wendy Given, Stephen Hayes, Craig Hickman, Alex Hirsch, Liz Holzman, Mark Hooper, Sarah Horowitz, Marilyn Joyce, Kimberly Kolba, Sana Krusoe, Carson Legree, Gabriel Liston, Jim Lommasson, TJ Norris, Barry Pelzner, Tom Prochaska, Ben Rosenberg, Laura Ross-Paul, Bill Sharp, Mike Southern, Ron van Dongen, David Winston, Jon Wippich and Christy Wyckoff. Green Oregon is more playful overall. It includes Robert Adams, Bruce Conkle, Erik Geschke, Maria T. D. Inocencio, Marne Lucas, Justin “Scrappers” Morrison, TJ Norris, Ryan Pierce, Patrick Rock, Mark R. Smith, Bailey Winters and Christy Wyckoff.

Town & Country at Froelick Gallery www.froelickgallery.com 714 NW Davis

Green Oregon www.greenoregonshow.org at the Manuel Izquierdo Gallery, PNCA. Enter on the loading dock at 825 NW 13th



PNCA, the Pacific Northwest College of Art, has been slowly transforming itself. After decades of a classic curriculum comprising only painting, printmaking, sculpture, graphic design/illustration, the school has added intermedia, accepted performance thesis', merged with a contemporary crafts program, added an MFA program and is now adding a broader 3d design program. Not every BFA program requires every student to spend a year focused in their individual studio, grappling with aesthetics, and preparing them for a lifetime of same, as does PNCA.

The sho has been up for a while, tonight is the public reception for the artists. BFA students show their work in the studio space in which they have worked for a year, the Stevens Studio. MFA students present in the main building central space, Swigert Commons.

At PNCA www.pnca.edu Stephens Studio 1432 NW Johnson, Swigert Commons corner 13th and NW Johnson. School business hours. Free


Post Present are large scale paintings and sculpture by Alex Steckley. At Stumptown Coffee www.stumptowncoffee.com 128 SW 3rd


Always recommended for your exploratory pleasure are the Everett Station Lofts, NW Broadway and Everett

May 31 Micki Skudlarczyk's Speaks on Viceral Art

Micki Skudlarczyk is a sculptor and ceramicist. Her work is not the type intended for dispassionate viewing from a distance. It resembles organs, something we all have; we visualize them schematically, from drawings, but really going inside is tough. It is the work of gross anatomy students, hunters, surgeons and butchers.

Some of her ceramic sculptures draw the viewer in with little cubbyholes just big enough for a hand, and with unexpected tactile experiences therein.

For this show she works large. Her room size sculpture is constructed of butchering waste, perhaps it is like being inside a whale. It is not alive, but we know by the unfamiliar but familiar smell and texture it is something like us inside.

For the show closing Skudlarczyk speaks. At 534 SE Oak, 1PM Free

May 29 Approx L Closing Event

Approx L is a performance and an installation. We noted the performance at Gallery Homeland earlier. The installation at Worksound closes this Saturday. The project is a dense semiotic with a heavy word component as you may hear from the artist statement:

"The Land of L Exactitude ~ The Land of L Adaptations ~
L, Beside Itself (adrift, at sea)

APPROX L incorporates tactics of sculpture, curation, documentation, indexing, sound, video and performance into one tripartite installation work.

Drawing as its subject a name (Lindsay) that has been mired in multiplicity and obscurity since its first recorded attestation in 731 CE, APPROX asks its audience to dig deeper into its seemingly bottomless well of referentiality and tangentiality. At once playful and unsettling, the project mimics properties inherent to any proper name: that which its owner both possesses and is possessed by; specific enough to warrant a capital letter; pointed enough to startle a sleeping body; unruly enough to have to be spelled out; general enough to be repeated in several different places at any one time; intimate enough to enter; fickle enough to be forgotten; and yet final enough to persist long past our times."

More information at www.approximatel.blogspot.com Installation at Worksound, closing event www.worksoundpdx.com 820 SE Alder 7PM Free

May 29 PSU MFA Social Practice Shows

PSU's MFA program has a big social practice contingent and two of tonight's graduates demonstrate that. Katy Asher reprises M.O.S.T. a collaborative noted previously. They staged participatory interventions that were fun with a sometime absurd point of view. Katy shows M.O.S.T. Remastered, artifacts from past M.O.S.T. at Neuberger.

Sandy Sampson is a visual artist as well as a social practice artist who has mounted a large variety of social and community interactions. One project is Parallel-University. There is more at her websites - sandysampson.com and sanone.blogspot.com. Her work is at the MK Gallery in the art building.

See both!
Autzen Gallery, 2nd floor, Neuberger Hall, PSU Main Campus
and
MK Gallery, 2nd floor, PSU Art Building 2000 SW 5th x College
both 6PM-9 Free

May 29 Bike Pyle 2.0 Dedication

The Zoobombers are a unique anarchy united by their love of riding the MAX to the Zoo with bikes, then riding the bikes back as fast as possible, then repeating. You are a Zoobomber if you ride. There are no leaders.

The Zoobombers favor minibikes, the dollar thrift store kid bikes with wheels under 13 inches - they are easy to bring on the train and ridiculous to ride. You have seen them locked to a post across from Roccos.

The city commissioned artist Vanessa Renwick and Brian Borello to develop a public sculpture to store the bikes between Zoobombs. The artists worked with the Zoobombers to collaboratively design the sculpture. If you know Borello's public sculptures and Renwick's film projects you know why they are a perfect fit for collaboration. Tonight everybody's work and fun are unveiled!

The whole project is a beautiful improbable collaboration, what Portland likes.

Here is the rundown: Meet @ holy rack (Pyle 1.0, Roccos) 4:30PM, Parade to new pyle (SW 13th and Stark) 5, Dedication by Sam Adams 5:20PM, Singalong 6, Bike performances by the Sprockettes 6:20PM, Celebration at the Ace Cleaners, after. Animal costumes encouraged! Free

May 24-June 28 PNCA Thesis Show

PNCA, the Pacific Northwest College of Art, has been slowly transforming itself. After decades of a classic curriculum comprising only painting, printmaking, sculpture, graphic design/illustration, the school has added intermedia, accepted performance thesis', merged with a contemporary crafts program, added an MFA program and is now adding a broader 3d design program. Not every BFA program requires every student to spend a year focused in their individual studio, grappling with aesthetics, and preparing them for a lifetime of same, as does PNCA.

The results are presented tonight. BFA students show their work in the studio space in which they have worked for a year, the Stevens Studio. MFA students present in the main building central space, Swigert Commons.

The large public reception will be June 4, First Thursday.

At PNCA www.pnca.edu Stephens Studio 1432 NW Johnson, Swigert Commons corner 13th and NW Johnson. School business hours. Free

May 15 Learning from Art Students - OCAC

Oregon College of Arts and Crafts produces work sometimes on the art side of the crafts to art continuum. It is often interesting in the context of the three sided compass of art-design-craft. Last year, the thesis show for OCAC was at Worksound with a few pretty awesome idea-based works. Beautiful but heady. This year the OCAC thesis show is at Disjecta. A nice gettogether, with some open studios by artists that share the space. At Disjecta. www.disjecta.org 8371 N Interstate near Paul Bunyon. 6PM-9. Free

May 7 Westside Art Openings

Ellen George makes small bright sculptures from polymer clay. Sometimes they connect into larger assemblages. Her work is delightfully minimal and oddly happy, maintaining a subtle lightness and maybe the idea that the shapes came from nature's stones and plantlife. At PDX Contemporary Gallery www.pdxcontemporaryart.com 925 NW Flanders


Dinh Q. Lê is one of Portland's most accomplished artists. He splits his time between Portland and native Vietnam. You may know earlier award-winning photographs, weaving two large scale prints of scenes from the Vietnam war taken from films. Lê lived there at the time but was sheltered in the countryside, so in a way his cinematic experience of the war was more real. He has continued progressive video and sculpture work combining personal references with larger ideas. At Elizabeth Leach www.elizabethleach.com 417 NW 9th


UNKL is a project by Derek Welch and Jason Bacon. UNKL are characters with a story. The characters are made in toy-like form and collected by Otaku and ordinary people. Sometimes they become animated characters too. The stories are the fascinating part, like SUG. "In 1955 SUG was born in a remote part of Iceland. He weighed in at 40lbs and was an astounding 43" long. Today, SUG is 7'7" and weighs 655lbs and continues to base his operations out of the remote moonlike landscape of northern Iceland.

As a self-proclaimed protector of humanity, SUG's mission is very simple: to assist people of the world who are in desperate need of help. He has no affiliation with any one government and is not concerned with the politics of his actions, but rather views his role in global, historical and human terms.

SUG’s abnormally small and featureless head is the result of prolonged exposure due to defects in early handmade versions of his now iconic protective suit. His atrophied right arm is a result of a small tear in the third generation suit caused by a stray bullet and lead to a brief exposure to highly toxic gases in a subterranean location in Oklahoma. The arm was reduced in size almost immediately and is, for the most part, unusable.

His bag contains four vials of undefined liquids. They were gathered from native medicine men, world-renowned scientists, Eastern medicine and Western doctors. These four liquids can be mixed together in various amounts and combined to formulate "silver bullet" serums to cure any ailment currently known to man.

SUG created UlliGUS not only for companionship, but also to assist him with tasks ranging from reconnaissance to tracking."

I'm all for more superheroes, needed now more than ever! At Compound Gallery www.compoundgallery.com 107 NW 5th


The creativity of artists is tragically underestimated. W+K thinks differently. The creative agency hires creatively and changes the world. W+K=Make is another way these artists are changing the world. Over one hundred of them from the Amsterdam, Delhi, London, New York, Portland Shanghai and Tokyo have made art. Each piece is a very reasonable price and the proceeds are dedicated entirely to the Room to Read project. You can see the work in person in Portland or even buy it online. Good work for a good thing. At the ad agency. 224 NW 13th 6PM-10 Free


Stumptown has illustration-style work by Mark Warren Jacques and Timothy Karpinski. This show has individual work and collaborations where one artist directed the other.
Mark Warren Jacques: “I have no idea what we are doing here, how we got here, or where we are all going later. At best I like to think I know where I am right now”
Timothy Karpinski: “From a young age I’ve always been making things. Building forts turned into building skate ramps, which led to building art installations.”
At Stumptown Coffee www.stumptowncoffee.co 128 SW 3rd


Philip Cooper is a Portland filmmaker, musician and installation artist. He has a show this month at Valentines with music opening night by DJ Backyard Roy and DJ Electric Castle. At Valentines myspace.com/valentineslifeblood 232 SW Ankeny Art 6PM, party 9:30 Free


Fontanelle shows Shawn William Creedon: If I Weren't Here, They Would Be, foiling the Zen koan about the tree falling in the woods. In this case the they are native birds of the Northwest which Creedon has illustrated, some with embroidery. At the Fontanelle Gallery www.fontanellegallery.com 205 SW Pine


Light boxes can be magic; they are explored too rarely as art. But Meagan Greer does so tonight in a show Lights On at Night. A two way mirror allows them to function as a mirror or alternately a light box when illuminated from within. At Relish Design www.shoprelish.com 1715 NW Lovejoy St


Disappearing is a book, an art show and performances; it is a meditation on things disappearing from the world. It includes contributions by some pretty amazing artists, writers and musicians: Aaron Henry, Alexandra Lakin, Carson Ellis, Cynthia Lahti, Cynthia Star, Donald Morgan, Jack Dingo Ryan, Julianna Bright, Jessyca Burke, Kristan Kennedy, Montana Maurice, Philip Cooper, Rudy Speerschneider, Vanessa Renwick, Zak Margolis, Camela Raymond, Kevin Sampsell, Ty Connor, Ty Connor, Dustin Lanker and The Golden Bears At Reading Frenzy www.readingfrenzy.com 921 SW Oak


Mark Woolley has his closing show featuring many of the gallery hit artists. At Mark Woolley Gallery www.markwoolley.com 817 SW 2nd


Anna Siems uses wax medium to make finely textured images, often on reclaimed paper. Her subject matter, figures, plants and dresses. Sometimes she scratches words into the wax in made up languages. At Laura Russo http://www.laurarusso.com/ 805 NW 21


Always recommended for your exploratory pleasure are the Everett Station Lofts, NW Broadway and Everett, and the DeSoto building NW Park and Davis which includes the Museum of Contemporary Craft and the Nines Gallery inside Blue Sky.