Showing posts with label Portland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Portland. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

I "heart" Portland, OR

last week I escaped to Portland, OR to visit an amazing friend (and her amazing boyfriend) and I fell in love with the city. I don’t know what all the bad weather spin is about - during my entire 4 day stay i didnot see one rain drop! (It was sunny and in the 70s!)

Besides the weather, I was WOWed by the spirit of the city and the abundance of arty and crafty people and events. A major highlight was seeing Mandy Greer’s remarkable installation, Dare alla Luce, at the Museum of Contemporary Craft. It enchanted me (I bought the catalogue)!! I then joined Mandy Greer herself and about 40 others in a crochet-a-tron. There we learned to crochet and made crocheted pieces to add to her next installation, mater matrix mother and medium - 'an interactive, process-based art installation in Seattle’s urban forest with performance by Zoe Scofield'.
It is a huge project and she has been hosting these crochet-a-thons to help generate the crocheted materials that she needs. I am hoping to host a crochet party here on the east coast and send our wares along (email if you would be interested in coming!!)

At the event I made my piece and donated it. I then went home to practice more with some unique yarn I got at a very unique yarn store, Yarnia. There you create ‘your very own custom blend of yarn -- you choose the fiber, color, thickness, and amount, and can have your custom cone of yarn wound for you right on the spot.' I got some blues with Mandy’s installation in mind, fully prepared to donate this piece too. But as I have been practicing my crochet stitches and experimenting I have grown quite attached to this piece. I love the organic-ness of it. I hope to have the ‘webbing’ continue on and on. So I think this piece is staying with me and I will just make another blue piece to donate.
Portland truly got my creative juices running - more later.
'til then peace!