Friday, December 28, 2012

Portlandia, seen on a cool, dry winter evening

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This huge statue fascinates me. Oh, how I would like to get the chance to stand a window near her, rather than just on the sidewalk below her or across the street from her. On December 5, after I took the photo of the Benson Bubbler, seen in yesterday's post, I looked up and saw Portlandia in a new light--sorry, but I've not seen her at night, lit this way, with no leaves on the nearby trees--couldn't resist that one, y'all. She is the second-largest copper repoussé statue in the United States, after the Statue of Liberty. She's almost 35 feet tall, and she's not even standing up. If she were, she'd be about 50 feet tall!

Found this on Wikipedia: The statue is above street level, and faces a narrow, tree-lined street with limited automobile access. Occasionally, there are suggestions to move the statue to a more visible location, but these have come to nothing and the sculptor (Raymond Kaskey) states that he designed the statue for its location and would not approve of moving it.

8 comments:

Jim Klenke said...

I bet that would be neat to see eye level.

Birdman said...

Now, that's a BIG lady. What is Portlandia?

Dave said...

I looks like Portlandia has held up well to the test of time and Portland weather. My brother was an intern at one of the City of Portland offices when that was installed. I do remember there was controversy about it when it went up.

everyday things in photos

Julie(t) said...

Glad that Kaskey stuck to his guns. Portlandia is a marvel! Next to her counterpart of sorts, Miss Liberty, she is my favorite.

Anonymous said...

Oh I like her!

Randy said...

You will never believe this. I had a dream that I had traveled to "Portlandia" as it was referred to in my dream. Outside of my dream this is the first time I heard it referred to Portland as Portlandia. Maybe it's time for a trip. Nice shot.

Anonymous said...

We weren't able to go downtown that day, but it was quite a sight to see it brought up the river on a barge and then through the city. Beautiful picture. fj

Lowell said...

Super shot, Lynette! The tree branches give her a sense of mystery and entanglement! Wonderful night photography!