Whoo! I rode my bike around for First Thursday (big art show opening day around Portland) and had so much fun. It was really cold but so exhilarating. Left at about 6:00pm to check out PNCA. Wore my leather pointy shoes and leather jacket. Nice animal cruelty combination going on there. My hair was still flattened back from the days hairstyle so I just gelled it into shape and headed out looking all sleek like.
There wasn't much going on around PNCA so I rode down to 5th&Couch to check out the galleries there. People in the Pearl don't have a lot of respect for bikers (yeah you share the road with us, we will obey the stop signs and you should too). Didn't get hit but there were some dummies. I always get a weird start when I am turning left towards Couch, like I never have been able to get the pedals started right so I falter. Didn't help that I was wearing shoes not meant for biking in. Got there alright and locked my bike to a gate. The gallery in the Portland Art Center had a nice installation in the front half, the back half was annoying (we are forced to deal with people crying really fakeily and awkwardly...deep). Upstairs was some New Renaissance work, some of it was really brilliant and so well executed. Wasn't so inspiring but really purdy with some great technique. Another annoying installation tucked away(shes swimming in an endless circle...deep). Also annoying kids running about.
Floating World Comic's exhibit was all female artists and I think they may have been Portland-based female artists as well. A good premise but ultimately I was left disappointed. Is this all we could do as a gender? Nothing really stuck with me except for some nice line art and a few colorful pieces but even then it is hazy.
Ran into Gordon, my Digital Tools teacher. He recommended I check out the gallery "Motel". He looks exactly the same in class as he does in reality, I guess the perks of being a computers teacher at a small private art school. He is a cool guy, while I may not be interested in all that he teaches us he gives a good energy so I enjoy class. Today we worked on piecing together our images and making them into a video. I was starting from fresh when I came in this morning and I was the only one done by the end of class. Huh. My video is about a sea monster attacking people, finding a bride, having a family and attacking more people.
The Motel gallery had this really insane hyper-rendered in pencil artwork. I spent so long looking over all the little bits, noticing how people just breezed right past them not taking the time. I took the time and I saw so much. Really surreal zombie women and portraits and people walking along floating rock formations with spears. Ghostly and ethereal, loved it! They had silkscreen tee shirts with the designs but you know, I'm trying to be save-y here.
It was getting dark so I got on my bike and decided to ride home. Somewhere around 12th and Washington I decided to circle back to PNCA and see if anything more was going on. There wasn't anything going on at PNCA, no new shows (there is something from Casey Oney but I saw it earlier today). Down the street was where they close off traffic and have tents set up. It was about 2-3 blocks last month, now it was about one. Walked through it but nothing caught my eye.
Looped around and went into this poster-making place that was having higher end (or rather commercial) looking wares. Chatted at length with Jacob Kaup, a local potter who had some spectacularly colored wheel ceramics on display. They were sort of drab at first glance but when I got close it was just WOW. So many little reds and blues, turquoise and...just wow. Gazed and gazed at them. There was a nice jewelry maker lady who made these really fancy bracelets with lots of little beads. The paintings upstairs, some of the abstracts only half looked planned out and the Italy street scenes were childish. The works composed of bits of wood were nice...but like I said it was commercial and not so indie and edgy.
I left the building and heard Chervona playing so I skittled over towards them. They were not playing the first time I went through the tents on 13th, but they were now. Much of the same music they played last First Thursday, but it was still amazing. Bounced along in rhythm and took some photos (no flash, probably blurry but we will see). Just love these guys.
Continued through the network of tents back towards where I locked up my bike and saw this display I missed the first time through. The work had a very gestural quality to it, but it was made using bent wire. There were mobiles where each direction produced a new face and there was a large piece on the back of just faces (the artist, Spenser called it "Schizophrenic on Coffee") melding with one another. There were smaller little movable toys and wire birds. I was enthralled. I stuck around for a while and chatted with him on and off between him making sales and me admiring the 3D skull earrings. We talked about octopuses.
At about 8:30, my fingers well and truly numb I decided to ride home. Second time today I made that trip. On the way back I stopped several times to take more night shots of the city. People were really nice about it as they walked past. No one mugged me or looked like they would mug me.
So from 6-9:15 I was out and about and freezing cold but like I said, exhilarating and worth it! I'd like to bike at night some more if I didn't worry so much about drunk city drivers.
Oh and in drawing we drew boxes for three hours. I thought I had bested that old foe but it rose again. The platform was what gave me the most trouble; I want to take an axe to its irregular angles.
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