Day 3: Portland

Day 3: Portland

Weather: raining off and on in the morning, clearing and sunny mid-afternoon, raining at 6pm, rain tapering off at 9pm

Quote of the Day: Go south and then…

Today is mostly in pictures (again). Fitness Center and pre-breakfast of toast and coffee followed by Grape Nuts and berries.

Uber to the Hilton ($8.62) for the meet-up with group. First stop is Disjecta, an exhibit curated by Gail Brown who was not feeling well enough to attend. The theme is the Evocative Garden and Gail invited five artists to participate and the rest were selected through a juried process. All work here is for sale.

Both DB and THB liked this one, not enough to buy

Three artists are on hand to explain their work in the show. Christopher Adams is both on hand and on the tour. He comes from the meticulous side of the art world: many small repetitive (not identical) components used to make a much larger work.

Chris in front of his untitled piece

SA buys one of the components (the whole piece is the the $60K range, and huge)

Linda Sormin, professor at Alfred, "Restive Elements"

Kim Dickey; she has two pieces in the show. De Robbia

Kim pointed out to THB the suggestive nature of this work

DB pointed out the hidden faces 

The next stop is two different galleries within a few blocks of each other, so the group splits up and swaps around part way through the time allotment.

Bay Area transplants started this gallery; many of the artists are on hand and even with only half the bus it is crowded

Erica Sanada, "Slumber"

"Noise"

Evan Hobart, "Metropolidon"

"Sleepyhead"

Actually, about 5 interconnected galleries: ceramic, jewelry, clothes, cards, other stuff

DB and DA do some buying in this tiny gallery with exquisite small cups, pitchers and bowls in muted colors

The local coffee shop

THB and DB share a very good medium decaf au lait, $3 

Local wine shop with the hours that leave plenty of time for making wine

The next stop is the Ash Street Projeect. Lunch and lots of tempting items to buy. The group does both; maybe the champagne poured with the sandwiches has something to do with the buying? THB doesn't think so, the Collectors Tour is well named!

Kevin has at 5 pieces here (before the buying started)

There are a number of pieces by Beth Lo (fewer after DB and THB bought some)

Mike Helke

Best of show: done by a resident, THB and DB buy two of these unique bowls

The original caterer backed out at last minute, so Elephants stepped in

THB has tuna today

After lunch, THB goes looking for Advil. After several random attempts at finding a market, THB realizes that a) his best bet is something that might be a gas station mini-market and b) he's lost. How could he lose the Ash Street Project (surely the name is a giant hint). When he calls DB to get his bearings, she puts on someone from the Project who starts her directions with "...head south".  Wait a minute, THB forgot to bring his compass with him on this trip...DAMN!

How did THB know he was lost? Some of the murals were showing up more than once

After THB climbs on the bus (the bus was another big clue about where THB should be, unfortunately it was lurking blocks away), we are our way to the Eutectic gallery,  run by one of our local tour guides, Brett. The Gallery is in the front of a molded clay (i.e., multiples) company, Mudshark Studios, started by Brett and another partner.

Collaboration between Doug Jenk and Christine Golden; sold before our tour arrived

the back side

Brett leading the tour; we're in the first group and while the amount of info seems appropriate, the half of the tour in the gallery is getting very antsy (not that much work, not that much space)

Bunny bank

One of Mudshark's big products

Growlers!!

Miles Spadone

Zappa poster in the bathroom

Last stop of the day: highlights from MFA shows and 3D printer work:

Mixed applied arts and design from OCAC, Oregon College of Art and Craft (more about OCAC tomorrow)

Jared Lindsey, "Hopi Koshare"

Elliott Kayser, "Holstein Shigaraki"

THB, DB and SA are nearing the peak of exhaustion and jump the shark via Uber back to the condo. DA appears soon after; lots of idle chatter about the experiences of the day and, since it's raining again, we take the trolley car to dinner at a Brazilian all-the-meat-you-can-eat place so DA and THB can share the primary Rio dining experience with the spouses. Fogo de Chao (they have a Rio location we walked by): four "prime" meat dinners, salad buffet, wine, local draft brewskies, $300 for four.

Skewer cooking station