The Arts Beat

I thought I'd lead with the door to this cupboard from Pakistan, one of many that were in an Antiques Store that we wandered into on the second day.  While this one looks pinky, it's really more of a deep red, shown below in context.

Definitely wouldn't fit in my suitcase, or my house, but they were fascinating.

Crockery.

I assume this was some sort of a "stove-surround" that would go around a pot belly stove in Austria or such. Ignore the pots piled in.  There were things everywhere in this store.

Different camera, with a flash. There were "steps" on each side of this.  I can only imagine where it was from or what it was used for.

They had lots of pine furniture like the set we have in the guest room.  And even at 50% off (the guy was retiring to make custom furniture), it's nice to see that our belongings have risen in value.  While the folks in Texas (where I bought mine) said it was a container from Sweden, all of this was from Austria, and it was so similar to mine, I think the Texan guy was giving me a tall tale.

 

In the gallery next door, we saw this Rauschenburg fabric piece? quilt? wallhanging? that had been shown in the National Gallery of Art in 2008, and was for sale here at the bargain price of $49,000. It was interesting because the sections on the middle left with the red flowers/red dots actually consists of a floral voile overlay over two differing fabrics.  After seeing this, I feel much more encouraged toward the pieced backs of my quilts, although I dare say nothing I ever make out of cloth will ever reach any sum such as this.  Such is the nature of quilting--it's not really an "art" unless someone like Rauschenburg stitches it together.  An age-old battle that will never be won.

 

These artists examine the use of color in novels.  Yes, apparently they count up the number of times the name of the color is used in the novel and make a bar chart that correlates.  I loved these little renditions, inkjet prints.  The top one is called "Color in: Utopia" and the lower one is "Color in: The Pastoral Symphony."

 Sign in a tchotchke shop.

 Street moments.

I really like the sign outside of this place: Working Playing.  The Working words were lit up, as in "Hi, We're working now and come on in."  There's a close-up below.

This photo is called Sisyphus and it's a woman combined with her laundry pile, all held up by her husband.  I laughed out loud.  I told Dave I always called it Mt. Laundry, and there were other names that women had for this never-ending chore.  We stopped for a noodle-themed lunch, then headed to Powell's.  How can you not come here? 

I loved the pillar out front. Carpe Librum: Seize the Book.

One of Portland's interesting features are these four-way fountains.  There's a photo of one in our hotel room, with young women from the turn of the century leaning over, the feathers in their hats a nice counterpart to their button-up shoes and long skirts.

Back home at the Benson for a rest, as the day has worn us out.

But later, we headed over to Moonstruck Chocolate for another Portland requisite: a cup of hot chocolate.  I had the Mayan dark ("hints of cinnamon and almond" and I say a touch of spice) and Mayan regular for Dave.  Then a walk back home in the rain so Dave can work on his talk to be given on Friday at OSU.  We did go out for dinner, but the rain had stopped.  It was a cool crisp night in downtown Portland.