Magical Downtown Portland

On Saturday, we spent the day in downtown Portland enjoying a play day without much of a to do list. A highlight was meeting up with long time friends Dave and Vicki (and by long time, I mean close to 40 years long!). We started our meandering day at the Portland Art Museum.





Howard bought an art book at the museum store and demonstrated how to properly break open a new book (his mother was a high school librarian).


A highlight of the day was imbibing in drinking chocolate at Cacao. We were trying to decide which of three choices to order, when we saw they offered a flight of three -- one of each flavor: Rivoli, cinnamon, and spicy. We all agreed that we liked the deep, dark, pure chocolate of Rivoli. So much so, that Howard got one to go.



While Howard looked a little jacked up on the chocolate, Dave looked a bit chocolate drunk.


A trip to downtown Portland would not be complete without a stop at Pioneer Courthouse Square, Portland's living room.



We also got to see some of the renegade Santas heading to SantaCon, carolers at Pioneer Place mall, live music at an immigration demonstration, and endured the longest line ever at a downtown Starbucks!

Art Market: More Curiosity

I finally had a chance to pop over to the Salem Art Association and check out their Art Market where I have some of my Curious Elements on display (and for sale, of course). I'm not sure if they have more under the table, but only nine were left hanging on the wall. Curious.



The Art Market is located inside the Bush Barn Art Center, which is located in Salem's lovely, large Bush Park. The show and sale will be up through Christmas.

A Time to Relax

It is always a treat to attend the annual Christmas Party of the Portland Art Collective. It is especially a treat because it is usually held at Maggie's beautiful historic home (aka mansion) located in the heart of one of Portland's best old NE neighborhoods. Not much need for words when photos will do.







One of several delicious desserts.


Some of the PAC members assembled and ready for the festivities to begin.







I received a beautiful original painting from Lenall in our gift exchange.


A couple of parting shots - it was such a beautiful, sunny, December day.

Liebster Blog Award

First of all, I must admit to being derelict in my blogging duties. I was nominated for this award at the end of November and I'm just now posting about it! My apologies to Rebeca Trevino of Obtainium Art who thought I was worthy of this award. And just what is the Liebster Blog Award? Here is how Rebeca describes it:

'Liebster' means 'favorite' or 'dearest'. This award, which originated in Germany, recognizes up and coming bloggers and is meant to showcase bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers. This is all done in the spirit of fostering new connections.

As a recipient of the award, I'm supposed to list five blogs and carry the love forward. For now, I'm just acknowledging that I received this award and thanking Rebeca - hopefully I'll be able to carry out the rest of my Liebster duties sometime in the future!

Open Doors Sale: Finito!

The Portland Art Collective Open Doors Show and Sale was this past Friday and Saturday at the Multnomah Arts Center. It was a huge success. I've documented the sale from set up to tear down . . . .

The set up. Tory was our logistics queen. She arranged to have the 60+ doors transported to the gym and arranged so that everyone had just the right amount of space. She divided us into teams and each team captain had a printed schematic of the layout. We learned very quickly that she knows how to use two of her fingers to blow a very loud mouth whistle!






By Friday morning, the gym had been transformed into a magical wonderland of over 20 artists booths. I just did a post on the Portland Art Collective blog with photos of many of the booths and candid shots of the shoppers, so rather than repost all of those photos, just click HERE to be transported to the PAC blog.

My booth. Getting started on the huge job of hanging close to 150 pieces of art seemed daunting at first, but finally the job was completed and the shoppers came. But first, we had to face down the dreaded blank space.









A pause. I want to thank my always supportive (and good-looking husband) for all that he does to help with this show, actually with all of my art. I want to give him credit because he 1) wired all of my art, 2) hung all of my art (and there were 125 Curious Elements), and 3) helped me set up and take down my entire booth. That doesn't even take into account that he helped to unload the doors on Thursday night and reload them on Saturday night!


The show. I sold three of my Fearless Faces during the show. The first, No. 18, was bought within the first hour by a lovely woman artist who was taking a class at the Multnomah Arts Center!


Dozens of friends and family came to the show, but I was so busy with working my shifts or visiting with visitors and patrons, that I rarely had time to snap any photos. But here are a few -- one with two of my grandkids, one with friends, and the last is of my sister and mom!




The end. There is nothing like a good, hearty laugh at the end of a long day to finish things up!