Author: Michael Smith

Categories
Community Discover Learn

Write Around PAM: Roman Saucepan

Saucepan, unknown Roman artist, 4 7/8 x 13 ¾ x 7 3/8 inches, bronze. A time worn pot with a rough, mottled, gray-green and bronze surface with a long, flat handle. The body of the flat-bottomed saucepan bows out slightly from its base and has a shallow lip that curves outward from the pot’s body. It has rough, crusty, gray-green corrosion on its surface with bits of smooth brownish bronze underneath showing through. A set of three very thin parallel grooves are incised around the pan’s top, just below the lip and more on the lip itself. More thin lines are seen on the interior of the saucepan. A flat handle protrudes from the left side of the pot. It narrows in the middle then widens into a rounded end with a circular cutout of its middle. More incised grooves form two circles around the cutout.

As county risk levels shift and vaccinations increase, we may start to venture out of our households more often. We likely have spent more time isolated this last year—and more time with the everyday objects around us–than we ever could have anticipated when the shutdown began. Writing allows us the opportunity to pause and reflect…  Read more

Categories
Discover Learn

Daily Art Moment: Bobby Abrahamson

Kat, from the series North Portland Polaroids, Bobby Abrahamson, gelatin silver print, image: 13 5/16 x 10 1/16 inches; sheet: 14 x 10 15/16 inches. A portrait oriented, black and white photograph of an individual seen through a storefront window arranging produce and smiling directly at the viewer. Their dark hair is pulled back, and they have dark arched eyebrows, a dimple on their right cheek and a beauty spot on their left above their mouth. Their smile is warm and welcoming. They wear a short-sleeved t-shirt under a dark apron. Their hands reach down in front of them to arrange a large bowl of olives amid bunches of grapes, small boxes of cherries and other kinds of produce. The figure is flanked by small store signs. One elaborately framed one to the left reads “Bakery Harvest Festival”, to their right is an out of focus sign in the background and one is directly in front of the figure and advertises “Rolls” and “Thanksgiving Dinner”. At top left a neon sign is partially seen. It reads “…El Food” and “…O-Nuts”. Across the lower section of the photo, a horizontal streak of white is visible, possibly a light reflection on the store window. Behind the figure are elements of the shop: a paned glass window and doorway. A narrow uneven white line along the outer edge of the photo frames the scene.

Earlier this week, public-facing workers throughout Oregon became eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. These are the folks who have kept shelves stocked, food prepared, systems running, buses moving, and packages delivered (among so many other visible and hidden jobs) during a dangerous and anxious time. This additional, positive step toward a healthier future makes me…  Read more

Categories
Community Discover Learn

Write Around PAM: Helen Frankenthaler

As the days lengthen, we may find ourselves longing for a summer vacation. This piece by Helen Frankenthaler can offer just the mental break to tide you over. In this early work, we can see her interest in using blocks of solid colors to suggest the land and sea. Frankenthaler soon developed the influential Color…  Read more

Categories
Discover Learn

Daily Art Moment: Barbara Earl Thomas

A Fire in the Landscape. Barbara Earl Thomas. 2003. Egg tempera on paper. 15 in x 30 in. Long painting framed in a simple, thin, dark wood frame with a cream mat. Subtle, but contrasting colors of yellow and purple wave like shapes layer on top of each other completely filling the paper. Multiple organic shapes are woven together to form an ocean or sky like scene. The shapes resemble clouds, flames, waves, birds, fish, etc. At the top left, a purple human figure appears to lay on the layers of the waves of color, left leg tucked under the right, right hand resting on left knee, and right hand near head as if gently holding a pillow. The figure is bald and has delicate, but well-defined facial features, revealing closed eyes. At the bottom right of the paper are more human figures. Like the first, these figures are naked, bald, and have their eyes closed. A larger figure embraces a smaller figure, laying behind, arms wrapped around the smaller body. To the right, a single figure is tucked into a fetal position, with hands facing out by the face. White lines layer over the feet, outlining another pair of legs and feet which were not painted. A gray colored hand and dark brown hand also stretch out past the feet without bodies connected to them.

“I think about salvation and redemption, where in the world it might come from. Who and what in the end will save us from ourselves. One can only imagine what shape any God might take.” —Barbara Earl Thomas With this work and related pieces, Barbara Earl Thomas explored humanity’s relationship with nature. Depictions of the…  Read more

Categories
Discover Learn

Daily Art Moment: Diego Rivera

Diego Rivera, Los Frutos del Trabajo (The Fruits of Labor), 1932, lithograph on cream wove paper, 16 7/16 in x 11 13/16 inches. Vertical rectangular print rendered in soft gradations of grays of 8 figures seated in a circle turned to a figure in the upper right corner and receiving apples from a central figure. The scene is intimate, tightly cropped, and facial expressions are serene. The central figure is youthful with short hair, head at three-quarter view looking to their right, hand outstretched having given an apple to a seated figure in profile at left. The left hand holds a cloth taut holding a bounty of apples. Three young figures seated behind peek out, obscured by the taller figures. An older mustachioed figure with collared shirt in top right has eyes cast down at a book spread open by his thumb. Four figures in the foreground with backs turned to the viewer face the apple giver and reader. The diminutive small figure at bottom center has long dark hair center-parted and braided, the ends of the braids are joined in a knot. At bottom right, an older figure wearing a jacket with epaulettes has left hand rested on another youth’s shoulder. In the foreground, a bound book’s cover bears a cursive D and 32.

Today we celebrate Mexican-American civil rights leader, Cesar Estrada Chavez, a former migrant worker who co-founded the UFW (United Farm Workers) with fellow activist, Dolores Huerta, which fought for unionization for laborers. Chavez, influenced by the non-violent tactics of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., used strikes, boycotts, and picketing to achieve equity for these…  Read more

Categories
Connect Discover

Artful Meditation Tour

Yoshida Chizuko (Japanese, 1924–2017), Rainy Day, Blue, 1954, color woodblock print on paper, image: 9 7/8 x 14 3/4 in; sheet: 10 7/8 x 16 1/8 in, Courtesy of The Lavenberg Collection of Japanese Prints. Image courtesy Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, L2020.21.5

By Edie Millar, Portland Art Museum docent Hello, I’m Edie. I’ve been a docent at Portland Art Museum for six years. Earlier this month my fellow docent, Sally, and I led our first virtual tour. To be honest we were both nervous. We were worried about using technology and were afraid no one would show…  Read more

Categories
Connect Discover

Daily Art Moment: M.C. Escher

Day & Night. M.C. Escher. 1938. Woodcut in black and gray, printed from two blocks. 15 7/16 in x 26 5/8 in. 1. Aerial view of farm land between two cities and rivers with a flock of birds flying above. The left side of the print is light colored with dark outlines while the right is dark with light outlines. The middle of the print uses an optical illusion where, from one perspective, white birds are flying to the right with a view of dark fields between them and, from another perspective, black birds are flying to the left with a view of light fields between them. The fields below the birds make a checkerboard pattern, but the lines are more organic, forming a variety of shapes. In the bottom left corner is a town with a church in the middle and connected buildings around it in the shape of a trapezoid. Waterways with boats line the edges of the city and a windmill sits across from it. A few farm houses sit at the edges of fields. On the opposite side of the city, a flat narrow draw bridge stretches across the curving river. A line of five ships sail just to the right of the bridge. Across the river a few farmhouses stand in fields and trees line the water passageways between the fields. The right side has the same city, but with dark tones, and is a mirror of the left side. A simple black border surrounds the print.

As we move into spring from winter, I am reminded of M.C. Escher’s woodcut Day & Night, which captures another transition. In this engaging yet perplexing image, white and black birds appear above the checkered fields below, marking the switch from the nocturnal to the diurnal. Escher plays with negative and positive space, light and…  Read more

Categories
Connect Discover

Daily Art Moment: Childe Hassam

Afternoon Sky, Harney Desert. Childe Hassam. 1908. Oil on canvas. 20 ⅛ in x 30 ⅛ in. Landscape painting of the desert in Harney County, Oregon. The foreground is covered with short, sharp, yellow and white brushstrokes with orange and red highlights that make up the desert foliage resembling sage brush. Beyond the desert, near the middle of the painting, soft blue and purple lines show the distant mountains. Above them the sky fills the top two thirds of the painting. The blue sky is filled with both large banks of clouds and a few single oval-shaped clouds in the middle. The clouds appear light gray and white with soft yellow highlights along the edges. From a distance, the painting portrays a soft, warm view of the landscape. A close view reveals distinct short strokes and the blending of multiple colors.

Spring is approaching, and the clear skies and sunny days are a cheerful welcome. With the changing season, I am reminded of Childe Hassam’s two paintings and his impressions of the Oregon landscape on his second visit to the region, which was quite different from his New England hometown. In Afternoon Sky, Harney Desert, Hassam…  Read more

Categories
Community Discover Learn

Write Around PAM: Melodie McDaniel

Morganne with Ebony. Melodie McDaniel. 2017. Photograph, archival pigment print. 33" x 44". Black and white photograph of a young Black individual posing on a tall black horse in a field of short grass in front of a light cement brick building with a palm tree to the left. The tall, thin rider is wearing black riding boots, jeans, a light colored t-shirt with undecipherable letters on it, and a plaid shirt tied at the waist. The rider is laid back in the saddle, back arched across the back of the horse, right arm gently extended holding the reins straight, and left arm outstretched, hand resting near the horse's tail along with the rider's ponytail of long braids. The tack has a simple design of thin leather straps and small silver buckles. The horse stands, left foot forward, head raised, mane blowing in the wind, with nose and mouth partially out of frame and slightly out of focus.

When was the last time you felt really free? In your body, in the space around you, in your mind? This piece by Melodie McDaniel offers a moment to notice, to reflect, and to celebrate those moments in our lives when we have been able to let go, to take deep breaths, to trust, and…  Read more

Categories
Discover

Northwest Film Center announces Identifying Features as winner of its Future/future competition

The debut feature from director Fernanda Valadez takes top honors in boundary-pushing new cinema from emerging filmmakers at the Portland International Film Festival. The Northwest Film Center is excited to announce the winner of the 44th Portland International Film Festival’s Future/future competition: Identifying Features, directed by Fernanda Valadez. The film, an intriguing and confident first…  Read more