(Wistful) Season's Greetings

Our winsome, one-horned neighborhood cow is sporting a Santa hat in honor of the season.

We all hope that you have a pleasant holiday season and a happy 2016.

NOTE: I WILL BE TRAVELING IN AFRICA UNTIL EARLY JANUARY. INTERNET CONNECTIONS ARE UNLIKELY TO ALLOW POSTING OF PHOTOS, SO I WILL PUT THIS BLOG ON STANDBY UNTIL JANUARY 7. IF ALL GOES AS ANTICIPATED, A GREAT FLOW OF PHOTOS OF AFRICAN WILDLIFE SHOULD THEN BEGIN.

Multitudes of Mushrooms

At the Portland Farmers' Market, 2013.

Spring in the Japanese Garden

From last April. A comforting reminder that dreary, rainy Portland winter weather will eventually improve.

Variations on a Wall Hanging

Three-Dimensional Details

Colorful Details

More semi-macro photos of details of objects around our home, collected on our travels.

Details

Yesterday was rainy, so I decided to stay inside and photograph details of some of the arts and crafts we have in our home. Here, for example, are five images of small portions - each only a few inches on a side - of a 3 ft x 3 ft painting by our friend and former Albuquerque neighbor, Ed Brandt.

Shadows on the Wall

In Old Town Portland near the Steel Bridge.

East Side Graffiti

A lot of my aesthetic taste was formed in the era of the Abstract Expressionist and Pop Art painters (Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, et al) so I have a fondness for bright, colorful, anarchical graffiti. The Central Eastside Industrial District of Portland is a rich source of such images.

Educational(?) Mural

These charming mural paintings are on the wall of a building down the street from the Troy Laundry Building featured in yesterday's post. They are vivid and newly painted, but it's not clear whether they're associated with a school (the building doesn't have a school name on it) or are an independent art piece offering some commentary on ed psych or parental exhortations.

Troy Laundry Building

The Troy Laundry Building on Portland's near southeast side used to house a commercial laundry. Built in 1913, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.  When its use as a laundry was discontinued, the second floor and part of the basement were converted to artists' studios. The artists recently held an Open Studio event, and I took the opportunity to photograph some of the hallways and walls - all very rough and makeshift, but picturesque as a result.

Fall Colors Hanging On

Most of the colorful leaves have fallen from the trees in our neighborhood in Portland, clogging the drains and causing some flooding of the streets in yesterday's heavy rain. But a couple of maples, perhaps because they're protected by a wall that gives some warmth and shelter from the wind, retain a few of their yellow leaves.

Aged Walls

The Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center in Portland's Pearl District, built in 1895 and refurbished many times since, "was the first historic redevelopment in the U.S. to receive a gold-level Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) award from the U.S. Green Building Council. " I like it mainly because it houses a good pizza shop and because of its romantically weathered walls. Here are some details.

Shining in the Rain

It's been raining sporadically and gently in Portland for the past week or so. In the evening, the reflections of lights on the wet surface of a concrete slab across the street from our condo (a building has been torn down, but the new one is not yet started) make for some interesting atmospherics and puzzling juxtapositions.

Gallery Wall

From First Thursday's art crawl: One wing of the PDX Contemporary Art Gallery has decorated/enhanced/adorned its walls with seemingly random but regularly arranged scribbles, reaching from floor to ceiling and wall-to-wall, against which paintings are hung. It makes an interesting environment, especially when gallery viewers are part of the scene.

Neon Glow

Four views of the glowing light field in the window of the Elizabeth Leach Gallery in Portland's Pearl District, photographed yesterday evening on the First Thursday art walk. The dark gray background of the Blogger template really makes a difference to the effective display of the photos on this web site.