Tag: writing

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Write Around PAM: Shima Tamami

Tori B (Birds B), from James A. Michener, The Modern Japanese Print: An Appreciation, Shima Tamami, 15 1/16 x 10 9/16 inches, color woodblock print with embossing on torinoko paper. A vertical, rectangular print depicting three simple, stylized birds with long necks. A bird in the foreground is positioned so that its body, neck and head create a “J” shape that occupies much of the print. The upturned tail aligns with the left edge of the print, its body swoops down to touch the bottom edge and the neck and head with open beak rise up to the upper portion of the print at the right edge. This bird’s body is mostly a solid black with a gray and black-striped tail. Its eye and open beak are highlighted in white. Behind this bird are two more, both with the elongated necks and beaks of the first. They stand with bodies in the center of the print and heads and beaks at the top. The bird on the left is shown in profile with its beak facing left. It has a black body and a small striped tail. The bird at right overlaps its companion with its open beak and head facing right. Its body and wings are depicted in contrasting textures in black and very pale blue. All three birds overlap a background that is divided into three parts. The upper half and a wide strip of the lower part of the print have a medium gray wood grain texture. The section in the middle is a lighter gray with vertical, reed-like markings.

Oregonians have been asked to pause social gatherings to help curb the spike in COVID-19 cases across our state over the next two weeks. How can we step outside in our imaginations instead? Both the beauty found in this piece by Shima Tamami and the honking of geese and flitting of birds outside our windows…  Read more

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Community Connect Discover Learn

Celebrate Portland Book Festival with virtual pop-up readings, Raven Leilani talk, Zoom Happy Hour

During the month of November, Literary Arts celebrates authors and Portland’s community of readers through a virtual edition of their annual Portland Book Festival, presented by Bank of America.  Literary Arts is a community-based nonprofit with a mission to engage readers, support writers, and inspire the next generation with great literature.   For the past five…  Read more

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Write Around PAM: Childe Hassam

New England Road, Childe Hassam, 34 x 34 inches, oil on canvas. A square painting depicting a man walking along a rural road in autumn. The road is positioned diagonally across the painting starting at the lower left corner where it is broad and wide and continues to center right where it narrows slightly, ending at the horizon line a third of the way from the top. Shadows from nearby trees fall across the road’s pale, tan surface. The top third of the painting is a blue sky with drifting, billowy clouds in pale, watery blues and whites. The center area of the work features a stand of trees with leaves of rusty red and yellow amid green grass, shrubbery, and fallen leaves. At center, a man stands with his back turned wearing a light-colored shirt, a dark vest, light blue trousers and a hat. He carries an ax as though he has been chopping wood at the roadside. Paint is applied with small brush strokes and colors are layered creating a soft effect without hard edges.

Fall is deepening in the Northwest, and the natural world is letting go in preparation for winter. Amid the shifting social, political, racial, and economic hardships we are facing as a community, our seasons are shifting as well, offering us invitations to write and reflect on change. Childe Hassam’s New England Road captures this shifting…  Read more

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Write Around PAM: Gonzalo Fonseca

Two Figures with Still Life, Gonzalo Fonseca, 49 1/8 x 35 inches, oil on burlap. A vertical, rectangular painting representing two, geometric, abstract figures. The boxy figures take up most of the painting which is rendered in tones of gray with black outlining. The figure at left has a circle for a head with a small crescent shape positioned just to its left. Squared off shoulders lead into a rectangular body that disappears behind another tall rectangle in front of it. A thin, upright rectangle is positioned separately near the bottom left. At right, another figure has a boxy head and uneven square shoulders with a slim bit of straight body visible behind the rectangle in front of it. That rectangle has a triangular chunk taken out of its lower portion, perhaps suggesting a table leg. A dark gray, slanted square is positioned in its upper portion and contains three small abstract shapes. The figures and the table representation are a pale gray with visible brushwork while the background is rendered in deeper gray.

This Tuesday, November 3rd, 2020, is U.S. Election Day. We Oregonians fill out our ballots at home, return them by mail or by drop box, and then we wait. The results—the decisions we will have made collectively as communities and as a country—will likely have reverberations here at home, at our very own kitchen tables.…  Read more

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Write Around PAM: Malia Jensen

Installation view; Hand, with Plum, Nehalem Estuary, 2019

When was the last time you were able to sit still? The kind of still that allows you to unclench your jaw, let your mind wander, and really rest in the present moment? There is so much important work to do—in our lives, in our communities, and in our world. Alongside this work is the…  Read more

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Community Discover Learn

Write Around PAM: Joe Feddersen

Flat Screen, Joe Feddersen, 19 ½ x 25, fused glass. A photo of a vertical, rectangular glass panel showing a simplified humanoid figure with an oversized rectangle for a head. The panel consists of a multitude of small glass rectangles that have been fused together forming the figure in black outline against a brick-like background pattern. The figure’s head is the outline of a large, horizontal rectangle resembling a flat screen TV. The neck, shoulders, arms, hands with thumbs sticking out, a torso, two legs and feet complete the figure. The figure is set against light blue glass rectangles that are stacked to form uneven rows with space between them being black. The piece is edged with a thin, red border.

Screens and our relationships to them continue to evolve and influence all facets of our lives—how we stay informed, how we work and learn and play, how we connect with one another, how we attempt civil discourse, even where in our spaces we spend our time. They can connect us across vast distances, and also…  Read more

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Community Discover Learn

Write Around PAM: Carrie Mae Weems

Untitled (Woman with daughter) from the series Kitchen Table, Carrie Mae Weems, each image 27 ¼ x 27 ¼ inches, gelatin silver prints. A series of three black-and-white photographs, positioned side by side, featuring a young Black girl and a Black woman in a room at a large table. The first photo shows the woman with short, dark hair and a dark dress seated at the end of a long, wooden table under a triangular overhead light. She looks down at an open book with her hand at left resting on her cheek and her arm at right resting on the thick book. Beside her to the left sit a notepad and pens. On the right side of the table is a notebook, pen, and a glass of dark liquid. To the left and behind the woman, stands a young girl in a light dress with shoulder straps, her hair up in pigtails. She stands with her arms folded and looks towards the book on the table. At right is a closed door and there are two chairs on either side of the table. The second photo shows the same setting with the woman now standing on the right side of the table leaning forward with her hands on the table. She looks directly at the girl now standing at left with hands clasped and resting on the table. The two stare intensely at each other. The third photo shows the woman back in her seat at the end of the table, left hand on her forehead, a pen in her other hand while she looks down at her book. The child is now seated at the right side of the table and is drawing in the notebook.
Carrie Mae Weems (American, born 1953), Untitled, from the series Kitchen Table, 1990, gelatin silver prints, each image/sheet: 27 1/4 in x 27 1/4 in, Gift of the Contemporary Art Council. Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, 94.19a-c

Writing continues to be an important way to process, explore, and gain new understanding in these times of upheaval. As fall continues on and communities navigate an especially unusual school year, we were drawn to this piece by Carrie Mae Weems. We imagine that kitchen tables like this one have taken on new roles as…  Read more

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Community Discover Learn

Write Around PAM: Yoshida Fujio

Nasturtium, Yoshida Fujio, 14 ¾ x 9 5/8, color woodblock print on paper. A vertical, rectangular print depicting an abstract, closeup view of a nasturtium flower’s petals. Undulating swirls of reds, rusts, yellows and green over a white background fill the print. Starting at top, a large petal folds over itself from the left towards the center. The petal is composed of stripes of yellows, peach, and rust that meet at a point toward the center leaving a large white teardrop shape and a crescent shape in white. At right, a large petal bows towards the center of the print in deep peach and red hues. Its shape is mirrored at left with another petal meeting the other at center in similar colors. Another large teardrop shape is positioned at bottom center. The overall effect is one of swirling, organic shapes and colors

As young children we are often asked what our favorite color is. Colors are some of the first words we learn and they help us describe the world around us. And while we may no longer commit to a “favorite” color, we recognize when we’re drawn to hues and how they make us feel. Colors…  Read more

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Community Discover Learn

Write Around PAM: Lillian Pitt

Dancing in the Wind, Lillian Pitt, 14 ¾ x 5 7/8 x 4 7/8 inches, clay, beads, wood, and wire. A photo of a sculpture composed of three main parts: a body, a base, and a finial. The pale-beige clay body is shaped like a vertical rectangle with rounded corners and is highly textured with imprinted patterns. The bottom right corner is rounded off further than the other corners. The imprinted patterns appear to have been made with shells and form concentric semicircles similar to how the bands of a rainbow are arranged. A row each of scallop and nautilus shell imprints form arcs on their sides starting at the top and ending at the bottom. The balance of the body is dotted with the indentations of shell markings overall. Protruding irregularly from the right side of the body are bent copper wires with amber colored beads at the ends. Each wire is bent differently. The body is attached to a thick, chunky wood base by a short, metal rod. The blond wood of the base is traversed with thin dark lines that seem to outline the grain. At top, the finial is connected to the body by clay and is an irregular spherical shape with metal rods radiating out at 9, 12, 2, and 3 o’clock. At 10 o’clock, a copper wire curves into a spiral.

Lillian Pitt, Dancing in the Wind, 1998, clay, beads, wood, and wire, Gift of Allan and Lenore Sindler, © Lillian L. Pitt, 2006.54.4 Even in its stillness, this piece by Lillian Pitt feels alive, full of movement, ready to dance. Our words can also carry motion, inviting us into imaginative spaces where we are floating,…  Read more

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Discover Learn

Write Around PAM: Comb Chest

Comb Chest, 11 1/8 in x 10 1/2 in x 11 5/8 inches, persimmon wood with white brass (baekdong) fittings. A photo of a wooden, cube-shaped chest with numerous brass fittings decorating its edges. The chest is a warm brown with dark graining. On the front of the chest, near the top, is a latch in the shape of a turtle on a large smooth plate. The top of the latch is in the shape of the turtle’s head and is attached to the lid by a horizontal hinge. Below the plate, there are two, small drawers adjacent to each other, each with a flat, round pull with a small tail at the bottom pointing toward the outside edge of the chest. Below these drawers is a long drawer with a pull in the shape of a stylized bat, its wings outstretched. The edges of the chest are embellished with triangular fittings that have scalloped edges and tiny, pierced holes. The fittings sit over the corners and edges of the chest at right angles. The chest sits on raised feet connected by a decorative apron.

When crisis strikes, as it has in Oregon over these last weeks with wildfires ravaging communities and smoke blanketing the state, we are reminded of what is most important to us: family, friends, community, pets, items that hold memories and carry meaning, and more. This Comb Chest evokes this same feeling for us: of treasuring…  Read more