Warm-weather weekends are here. Friday found me strolling with a gaggle of sharp-dressed idea factories, pairing off as we walked to discuss future plans for us, Portland, and beyond.
“We’ll start the record label” — “If we band together, could we get cheaper insurance?” — “if she moves to New York.” World domination can’t be far.
Our sidewalk scheming was periodically marked by Art Walk celebrations spotting the city. A convivial air breezed into rooms of travelers smiling with cheese-and-cracker-crumbs trapped in corners of the mouth while featured artists and gallery owners held court. Despite the engaging material on the walls, my attention continually drifted beyond the gallery doors to magnolia blossoms and contrails reddened by the setting sun. Sure, these are cliché base material for some potentially terrible art, but the precious and timely reality of flowering trees on Congress Street is a reminder that there is an entire creative ecosystem of artists, viewers, buildings, secret hideaways, islands, schools, and airplanes; and it’s still growing.
Here are a few more ideas for Portland as the warm weather welcomes an increase in creative exchange. They are offered with the awareness that our sidewalks are lined with brick, not chrome, and in the spirit of a warm smile rather than an effete handshake. Art is worth experiencing here in Portland because chances are you and your neighbor have something to do with it.
Jeff Badger, Artist/Curator: I have been hoping to organize a one-day event on the Narrow Gauge Railroad called “Mystery Train.” Artists would create site-specific works along the Eastern Prom Trail and on the train itself, and passengers would take a three-mile, round-trip journey through installations, performances, and tableaus. If I were a Hollywood producer, I might pitch it with a phrase like: “It’s The Sacred and Profane meets It’s a Small World!” Any interested parties can e-mail me at www.badgerart.com.
Frank Turek, Owner/Curator, ubu studio: I recall how last April first at the opening of the Anti-Friend Hut show, Clog the Cardboard Robot, for the grand finale of their performance, leapt off the roof of ubu studio. What a magnificent celebration of spring. There is nothing quite as invigorating as the seasonal changes, we suffer the rain, snow, and cold only to heighten our pleasure of the warm sun and smell of fresh greenery. Not everyone can have a dada performer jump off their roof but we all can lament or rejoice about the weather.
Eli Cayerl, MENSK Founder/Co-director: MENSK is looking for people who would be interested in taking over some of the summer projects we’ve enacted, such as the Roof Top Film Festival. The idea is to focus on and realize the mission’s developing process of aiding in the startup and release of events and happenings that increase cultural growth and sustainability in a creative and engaging way. Our hope is that, by acting as a resourceful nonprofit platform, community members can configure to meet their goals in the development or happenings whether we or they initiate, there will be a greater chance that some of this culture will endure and evolve organically.
Patrick O’Rorke, Artist: This summer is going to be the summer of beers, bikes, and barbecues. Oh yeah, and hopefully some good art.
