Portland feels familiar somehow. I’m not sure whether it’s that the downtown is really a downtown according to my North Eastern city planning sensibilities, or that the trees feel like Hampstead Heath trees, or whether it’s just that the weather is ridiculously like London’s. I arrived to what everyone tells me is a typical Portland day weather wise, grey and drizzling on and off all day. Feels like home to me! The air has that crisp Autumn feel and smell to it that kind of makes my heart sing and the trees and lawns all glisten with so much moisture they might just burst. Today the sun came out for the afternoon and it felt just like London on a sunny day.
So it seems Portland has really gone out of its way to welcome me, what with the weather and then an unexpected quirky Portlandy art event last night called Shine a Light at the Portland Art Museum. It was took place from 10am-midnight, although most of the events happened from 6pm onwards. There were all sorts of things going on such as ballet, comedy, poetry, line dancing, break dancing, and people even getting tattoos with artwork based on the collection. I participated in a piece called “Session With a Stranger.” In a ballroom (strange that an art museum should have a ballroom, but hey! what do I know?), I was paired off with a stranger, given a beer (a Session beer, hence the name), a coaster and a piece of paper that had conversational starting questions and a blurb on the back:
‘I believe that having something new happen, no
matter how small is what makes for a healthy day,
no matter how many days are left.’
-David Greenberger
…This project by Adam Moser and Jason Sturgil takes their individual interest in
work by artists from a pervious generation and combines and plays off their
ideas to form something new. Specifically ‘Drinking Beer with Friends is The
Highest Form of Art’ by Tom Marioni and the various questionnaire works by
Don Calender including his 1975 piece ‘Opinions of Working People Concerning the Arts.’
My stranger was from New York! Upper West Side! What a coincidence. I guess I would have to go really far beyond before I can get away from running into New Yorkers. Really sweet guy living in Portland for uni, majoring in art history who spent the last semester in Italy in culinary school. We got a good chat in and I dare say he’s not a stranger anymore.
