One of the personal highlights of 2008 was the happy day in August when I finally paid off the last of my student loans for art school. Today marks the passing of Senator Claiborne Pell, who gave his name to the grant that helped me and so many others afford the education they craved. I never gave too much thought to the name behind that grant, but NPR enlightened me with a very nice memorial. Apparently, Senator Pell not only paved the way for governmental loans for higher education, but he also wrote the legislation that established the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Click here to hear the audio on NPR and here to read the thoughtful tribute in the New York Times.

Hey Beautiful People! I am in between two trips to the Bay Area, the first for a holiday celebration with our families. Since we made this trip by car, we made it a priority to stop in Redding to visit the bridge designed by Spanish architect/engineer/sculptor Santiago Calatrava. I have been dying to do this since it first opened four years ago.

The bridge was mostly made possible by local philanthropist organization the McConnell Foundation, adding another element to the already interesting Turtle Bay Exploration Park. It was an overcast December day, so click here to see how spectacular this bridge can look on a sunny day more typical to this region.

After walking across the top, you can loop the path below for even more interesting visuals. There's a large circular opening that allows one to look up through to the tallest point of the bridge span. It's a beautiful frame from both above and below on more of the simple design elements that make this bridge so truly stunning.



The top surface is thick panels of glass, which apparently heat up like the dickens in the hot summer sun.

A very nice design consideration was the way the steel cables passed through the bridge surface between the ground and the 217 foot high pylon.

On the summer solstice day, the bridge lives up to its name the "Sundial Bridge." A semicircle with time markings skirt the far shore where the shadows fall to make the sundial work. I imagine it's their biggest day for tourism of the year, but I was perfectly happy to be among the few dozen who were here just a few days after the winter solstice.

The underside of the bridge was as beautiful as the top, not to mention the vistas of the Sacramento River from this point.

One of my favorite details was the white mosaic on the concrete aspects of the bridge. It added a handmade element to this otherwise sophisticated steel and glass structure without detracting from its elegance.

Okay....gotta jam pack as much as I can until I leave for my next San Francisco trip next Sunday. We delivered the Natural Selection work to Velvet da Vinci and so all we need to do is see if we can figure out how to put the dang thing back together again!

For those of you dear readers who don't live within 100 miles of Portland, OR, I'll begin by saying we're having a little bit of "weather" around here. For the past week, the thermometer has rarely registered above freezing, and we've been treated to a PuPu Platter of all that winter has to offer.

There have been some beautiful moments amid the storms--big fluffy wet snowflakes coming down one morning and I am so glad that Weegee and I took advantage of it and tossed the ball in the nearby HydroPark before rains washed it away that afternoon. Yesterday we were treated to a full 9 inches on the valley floor, which continued to accumulate overnight, and it looks like we will soon return to our regularly scheduled programming of rain.

Yesterday I was anticipating my next task of transporting my sculptures from the Natural Selection show down to San Francisco, where it will be at Velvet da Vinci Gallery for 6 weeks. I have been meaning to take some better pictures of many of the sculptures--I only had a small portion of them professionally shot and I really needed some better documentation of this huge project.

It was perfect lighting conditions for photography outside--lots of bright reflective light from the snow and a cloud cover. I decided to brave the 24 degree temperature and erect my photo setup to start in on the task for as long as I could stand it. I managed to get about a quarter of it shot before it started sleeting--hopefully I'll be able to return to this task in the next two days because I am really happy with my results. Here's a few to whet your appetites, but I eventually intend to finally make an online slide show and post it here.





In a related story about braving the elements to get the right shot, I have been following my friend Sade Kahra's residency in Iceland for the past week. I met Sade, as you might recall, when I did the residency at ONOMA at Fiskars, Finland last year. She is a great photographer and posted some of the pictures she took of her new environs last week. I fell in love with this one, which kind of reminds me of Daniel Barron's work. Sade said that she went to great pains, scaling down a slippery slope to get this shot, which is NOT Photoshopped like Barron's work, mind you. This is the real deal, folks. Enjoy!

I'll just treat it like a sign from above that on the very same day that President Bush was under fire by shoes, NPR ran a story about craftspeople in Naples, Italy, who are selling massive quantities of nativity sets with the likenesses of Barack and Michelle Obama included in the regular cast of characters. And now, your moment of bliss....

My friend Robin (who makes really cool hats!!!) told me about this amazing artist named Joshua Allen Harris whose time-based art form is to create these amazing animals out of garbage bags, attach them to New York City subway grates, and then watch them come to life when they are filled with air from the passing underground trains. Here's a video of a Polar Bear he made, but click here to see a nice profile piece that New York Magazine made but won't let me embed here.

It's exciting to live in a city where craft is alive and thriving. Congratulations to my alma mater Oregon College of Art and Craft, who just became the latest lucky recipients of a $500,000 matching grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust. Within the decade, I probably won't recognize the place as they go through a major remodeling of the entire campus. Click here to find out more about the grant. Information about the campus expansion can be found at their website in the "news" section.

I was born in 1967, and the first license plate I remember paying attention to was a royal blue with yellow letters. Sometime in the 1970's, they reversed the colors to blue on yellow. I was always sentimental, though, for a plate that came before my time--when they included the tempting slogan "Pacific Wonderland" along the bottom.

It was about 20 years ago when Oregon got its first pictorial license plate. I don't know if every state did it this way, but there was a state-wide contest, as my memory serves me. I was working my first full time job at the time at a company that made ceramic jewelry. We all hunched over our respective tables doing very repetitive tasks, but it was an interesting bunch of people and we kept a pretty lively conversation going most of the time. One of the people in the room was from central Oregon originally and he brought up a very good point about the license plate contest: how can you pick one icon that represents a state that has ocean, mountains, cities, high desert, canyons, a river gorge, and many many small rural towns? The image they settled on, which is still in use today does serve the majority of the state's population, which has settled on either side of the Cascade mountain range, but there are still many Oregonians who don't have a snow-capped mountain in their vistas.

From a design standpoint, I really like the tree plates. I don't know how to find an image of the early model to show you, but I do remember that they did a slight adjustment on the original design--I think they made the tree darker? (Anyone out there remember this???) It makes sense that there must be some difference between the original design and what ends up on the actual plate, after all the committee decisions and materials limitations that are inevitably part of any bureaucratic attempt at creative endeavors.

Case in point: I am a big proponent of the Oregon Cultural Trust license plates, but the artwork they chose for their fundraising license plate is not representative for me of the best our state has to offer. Their website states: "Rather than attempting to represent "culture" through specific images, or emphasizing one cultural sector over another, the Oregon Cultural Trust chose a design that is bold, abstract and distinctive." The end result, for me at least, is something that looks like nothing--it might as well be the surface of a Kleenex box in its noncommital color fluctuations. (Despite this, when Christian asked, I recommended the Cultural Trust plates because the money goes to a great cause and I think the orange tones look great on his steely silver car.) If I got to pick the artwork, I would probably give James Lavadour the offical tap on the shoulder. His renderings of Oregon landscapes have such a nice abstract quality, although I can't say for sure that the printing process wouldn't butcher all of the lovely detail of his original handiwork.
Yesterday I noticed on the Oregonian's website that they have been conducting an unofficial contest for a new state flag. I don't particularly mind our current flag--it has the same charm for me that the old Pacific Wonderland license plates had, and I'm happy keeping it the same. At the same time, it was interesting to look at the ten entries they published online and read the design process blurbs submitted by each artist. I picked out a few of my faves for you here, but if you want to see the entire article and vote for your favorite, click here.


John Mothershead, 50, Milwaukie
The process: "I've always had an interest in flags, doodling flags here and there and I saw the contest and said, 'Ooh, that's for for me.' " What it means: The green and gold quarters symbolize agriculture and the land. The wavy blue and white quarters symbolize the ocean and rivers. I wanted to make it flashy where it would stand out.



Douglas Lynch, 95, Northwest Portland, professional designer
The process: Commissioned to design the city of Portland's flag, he also noodled around with one for the state, and came up with this. Lynch still draws by hand and calls himself "B.C. Before computer. I'm computer illiterate." What it means: Green is for the agriculture. Gold is for the desert or wheat. And the two parts of the state are separated by the snow-capped mountains.




Gerald H. Black , 74, Warrenton, retired
The process: When Black thought about what best said Oregon, he imagined snow-capped peaks of the Cascades, the golden hills of wheat and the painted hills. He wanted a simple design to easily reproduced. What it means: Mount Hood dominates against a blue sky. The horizontal green stripe represents the forests and agricultural areas; the gold stripe represents the wheat fields and high deserts.


Thomas Lincoln, 69, Springfield, semi-retired graphic designer
The process: "I was going for continuity because a radical change in the flag will be a hard sell." What it means: Beaver would be singular to Oregon and make our flag distinctive. The colors tie to the blue and gold of the current flag. He wanted to evolve and upgrade it, not totally change it.

Portland is home to two great cultural institutions--the U.S. hub of contemporary craft (just ask Garth Clark!), and the largest independent used and new bookstore in the world. Every time you make a purchase from Powell's Books through the Museum of Contemporary Craft web site, you help support the Museum. Part of each purchase you make benefits the Museum of Contemporary Craft's innovative, thought-provoking and tradition-honoring programming. Use the search engine below to find Powell's books or merchandise, or visit the Museum of Contemporary Craft's Bookshelf page to browse a selection of curator's picks, exhibition-related titles, craft theory, do-it-yourself manuals, resources for professional crafters and more. Click here for more information!


Curator's Picks
* The Journal of Modern Craft edited by Glenn Adamson
* Thinking Through Craft by Glenn Adamson
* NeoCraft by Sandra Alfondy
* The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective edited by Arjun Appadurai
* Out of the Ordinary: Spectacular Craft by Laurie Britton-Newell
* Culture of Craft edited by Peter Dormer
* Objects and Meaning edited by M. Anna Fariello and Paula Owen
* Utopic Impulses: Contemporary Ceramics Practice by Amy Gogarty
* By Hand: The Use of Craft in Contemporary Art by Shu Hung
* Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft and Design by Faythe Levine
* What Makes a Great Exhibition? edited by Paula Marincola
* Part Object Part Sculpture by Helen Molesworth
* The Craftsman by Richard Sennett
* Ornament as Art by Cindi Strauss
* Sheila Hicks Miniatures: Weaving as Metaphor by Nina Stritzler-Levine

Exhibition-related Books

* Blobjects and Beyond by Steven Skov Holt and Mara Holt Skov
* DIY: Design It Yourself by Ellen Lupton
* The DIY Design Deck edited by Alissa Faden and Ellen Lupton
* DIY Kids by Ellen Lupton
* Skin: Surface, Substance + Design by Ellen Lupton
* Shards: Garth Clark on Ceramic Art by Garth Clark
* Eden Revisited: The Ceramic Art of Kurt Weiser by Peter Held
* Craft in America by Jo Lauria
* The Object of Labor: Art, Cloth and Cultural Production by Joan Livingstone
* Sublime Stitching: Hundreds of Hip Embroidery Patterns by Jenny Hart
* Sublime Stitching Craft Pad by Jenny Hart
* Bamboo in Japan by Nancy Moore Bess
* 3934 Corbett: Fifty Years at Contemporary Crafts by Jane Van Cleve

I just heard of the passing of one of Portland's gems in the art world Terry Toedtemeier. It's too early now, but I'm sure the Oregonian will run a story soon and I will link it. I have appreciated his work at PDX Gallery for many years as he chronicled the land where I have spent most of my life. He also served as Curator of Photography at the Portland Art Museum, where I'm sure he will be greatly missed.

addendum: Click here to read the Oregonian piece, scheduled for tomorrow's paper. It is a nice piece of writing for a well-deserved subject.

Blogs come and they go. What seems essential one day may grow tired and something new and exciting fills the gap of daily reads. Sigh....such is life. It's hard on my end to know what exactly how loyal my readership is, but as a blog reader myself, I know this is the hard truth.

On that note, I will say that I recently updated my sidebar of what blogs I read in the middle of the night when I can't sleep. I found some new locales on the blogosphere that I thought you might be interested in as well. These are courtesy of Miz Mary Lou Zeek, whose sweet little Salem gallery I have had the pleasure of working with from time to time over the past, what has it been now since she found me at an ACC show, 7 years???

Mary Lou has recently started a blog and has ever so graciously listed me on her bloglist. I spent a little time looking at the other blogs she has on this list of five, and am now more honored than ever to have made the cut!

Camilla Engman is a Swedish artist whose illustrations I have been familiar with for some time. Her blog offers a nice insight into her life, including the process of creating, installing, and showing her most recent work at the Nya Stadsgalleriet in Stockholm. I really love the way she documents her work from process through installation and the magazine quality images from her private life reveal that her home is also a work of art.

I was happy to discover the very candid blog from an artist I met years ago at the Baltimore ACC show, Bill Skripps. He has a love of found objects, which he incorporates into his mixed media assemblages. His blog is very personal and diaristic, and it offers a frank insight into some of the feelings I think most working artists are feeling in these scary economic times. For a visual artist, Bill seems to have a "more text, less images" aesthetic for his blog, but I managed to find and swipe this one of a recent completed piece he made. Bill's blog is called "The Salesman's Dog" and you can read it by clicking here.

The last blog I will share with you is called Tiny Buildings. It is only updated sporadically, but well worth the wait. It still contains a good amount of work to keep you busy for a while, so fear not. Tiny Buildings is the work of an artist named Sharon Mount, who makes exquisite little buildings out of found paper like restaurant menus or candy boxes, continuing a tradition she and her late husband started three decades ago. This image is a house made from a wedding invitation and, I assume, her wedding present to them as well. She has many buildings made from packaging from some of my favorite San Francisco restaurants like Blowfish and Citizen Cake, so this blog is also a nice love poem to one of my favorite cities.

My original post, Music, Brands and Marketing Plans, whipped up a quick response and the comments were all very thoughtful - it is after all a bit of a thorny issue. [I realized that I had written about celebrities and brands before and the post includes an interview on the subject with former LA Times [...]

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Cat Power & David Bowie will sell you a Lincoln WNYC’s Soundcheck Blog has a post entitled The Year in Music and Branding which comprises of a list from Josh Rabinowitz, senior vice president and director of music at Grey Group, of the best in music and branding in 2008. No irony here - just a [...]

Not only does the Amazon MP3 store have hundreds of free MP3s and 256kb DRM-free at that, it is now ponying up $5 worth of free downloads to me just for buying music that I actually want. iTunes beware, I have quit you. Should I consider EMusic anyone?

Boy Eats Drum Machine at Kush Carpets from The Penny Jam on Vimeo.

Purple Chick’s exhaustive 10-CD “Beatles Deluxe” bootleg. From the New York Times: So what’s the holdup? No one is willing to say, but Mr. McCartney recently asserted that EMI was demanding an unspecified concession that the Beatles were unwilling to make. Frankly, the reasons hardly matter at this point: to collectors awaiting these releases, either on physical [...]

Since I became an Amazon Prime customer the books have been stacking up at Moose manor. Much to read over the holidays and into the New Year. Here’s the stack that stares at me each morning: Dexter Filkins - The Forever War Buy The Forever War here Roberto Bolaño - 2666 A Novel Buy 2666: A Novel here David Browne [...]

I’m not a lover of all the Xmas music shizzle so I thought I’d leave you with an uplifting tune that includes some jingly bells from Decoder Ring. This is