Murals around Portland, Forest for the Trees NW, seen on Sunday, August 31, my mural find #4

Forest for the Trees, August 18 through 23, is a not-for-profit public mural project in Portland, Oregon. (Seen on their Web site.)



The third mural I photographed while out and about in my Zipcar Kia Soul, named Greer. Artist: J. Shea of Portland, Oregon. Location: 1301 SE Grand Ave. This mural was the easiest one to find since it is just north of my work building and across the avenue. I saw him painting one day after work as I waited for the bus. On his Web site:

Was invited to paint another mural this year.............for the Forest for the Tree's Mural Project here in Portland.................this year I got to paint my own wall...........on the exterior of Kidd's Toy Museum..................it was fun week painting with all the other artists...........hanging with old friends...............and meeting new ones...................



A close-up for you. That watch chain gets me. And the fish hook on the end of the string attached to the toy sailboat. Perfection.



Another close-up. A coordinated on the unicycle. A campfire burns brightly as the fish swim by and the wind-up cat looks on. A teensy tiny knight upon a robust steed.



One more close-up. My favorite part of the mural, this bee, perfectly curved segmented body, wings gracefully aloft.



More from FFTT Web site: Forest for the Trees is a not-for-profit public mural project in Portland, Oregon. The mural project promotes public visual expression; collaboration; and community engagement with contemporary art and the creative process. In August 2013, FFTT united seventeen artists from around the world to paint ten Portland murals.

This August, twenty local and international artists will come together for a week in Portland to paint more than a dozen pieces on public walls. FFTT aims to bring opportunity for local and visiting artists, and to share their gifts on a large public scale in Portland—a city already known as a creative hub and home to many talented artists.

Murals around Portland, Forest for the Trees NW, seen on Sunday, August 31, my mural find #3

Forest for the Trees, August 18 through 23, is a not-for-profit public mural project in Portland, Oregon. (Seen on their Web site.)



The third mural I located while out and about in my Zipcar Kia Soul, named Greer. Artist: NoseGo of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Location: 842 SE 3rd Avenue. On his Web site:

Yis "Nosego" Goodwin ​

NoseGo is a Philadelphia-based artist with a passion for illustration and media arts. He mixes fine art with a contemporary style to deliver highly energetic work. His designs feature an assemblage of patterns, vibrant colors and characters derived from his imagination and his surrounding environment.​ 



The part of the mural that mesmerized me--those bits of brick, I suppose, which seem to be attached to the wall, sticking out form it. They're painted there! Not three dimensional at all!



The wall where the mural lives!



Another close-up of a part of the mural.



More from FFTT Web site: Forest for the Trees is a not-for-profit public mural project in Portland, Oregon. The mural project promotes public visual expression; collaboration; and community engagement with contemporary art and the creative process. In August 2013, FFTT united seventeen artists from around the world to paint ten Portland murals.

This August, twenty local and international artists will come together for a week in Portland to paint more than a dozen pieces on public walls. FFTT aims to bring opportunity for local and visiting artists, and to share their gifts on a large public scale in Portland—a city already known as a creative hub and home to many talented artists.

Murals around Portland, Forest for the Trees NW, seen on Sunday, August 31, my mural find #2

Forest for the Trees, August 18 through 23, is a not-for-profit public mural project in Portland, Oregon. (Seen on their Web site.)



The second mural I located while out and about in my Zipcar Kia Soul, named Greer. Artist: Paige Wright of Portland, Oregon. Location: 2306 SE Morrison St. On her Web site:

There is a place where we lose ourselves. Some people call it a happy place or spiritual experience or meditation. I find that place within the studio. Human beings need a balance between the physical and the mental. The studio is where there is no hierarchy between movement and thought; one has to think to move and move to think.

Ceramics is a tool I use to investigate identity. Process becomes a metaphor for understanding. There is a filtration of information between what I look at and what is produced out of my hands. The marks and movements recorded in the clay become my thoughts.

I make portraits to analyze memories and understand myself. The act of Portraiture is like how we keep people; particular parts come together to construct a whole. A person’s specific features have to be described or just a vague human is created. By spending time rendering my relations I reflect on human framework and genealogy. Solidifying faces in the ceramic process I suspend the character creating placeholders and monuments that capture ephemeral memories.



The part of the mural that is ceramic, this face as a three dimensional portrait.



Zippers suspended from puffy white clouds. Rays of sun coming from the ceramic head included in the mural.



Another close-up of a part of the mural. The hands fascinate me, with their long arms dangling from more puffy white clouds. Plus, those short zippers in the other cloud. If you'll notice in the previous photo, much longer zippers dangle from another white cloud.



More from FFTT Web site: Forest for the Trees is a not-for-profit public mural project in Portland, Oregon. The mural project promotes public visual expression; collaboration; and community engagement with contemporary art and the creative process. In August 2013, FFTT united seventeen artists from around the world to paint ten Portland murals.

This August, twenty local and international artists will come together for a week in Portland to paint more than a dozen pieces on public walls. FFTT aims to bring opportunity for local and visiting artists, and to share their gifts on a large public scale in Portland—a city already known as a creative hub and home to many talented artists.

Murals around Portland, Forest for the Trees NW, seen on Sunday, August 31, my mural find #1

Forest for the Trees, August 18 through 23, is a not-for-profit public mural project in Portland, Oregon. (Seen on their Web site.)



The first mural I located while out and about in my Zipcar Kia Soul, named Greer. Artist: Rather Severe of Portland, Oregon. Location: 3602 NE Sandy Blvd. On their Web site: Murals and Artworks by Jon Stommel & Travis Czekalski. This mural is part of Portland's 2014 Forest For The Trees Mural Project. The wall is at 3602 NE Sandy Blvd on the side of Pulse PDX, painted over a 6 day period. It was such a great honor to participate in the project and represent local artists in Portland!



It's a miracle that I found this mural as easily as I did, since I was driving Greer east on Sandy, and the mural faces west. I knew I was close, from what the iPhone GPS I had plugged in was telling me, so I decided to pull into the lot to turn around and go back west on Sandy. As soon as I entered this empty parking lot, I saw this beauty out of the corner of my eye. Wow. Wow. Wow.



Something about its colors and shapes and vivid-self made me slowly shut the car door, staring at it and  deciding subconsciously not to shut the door all the way, not to make a sound to interrupt my mural-induced reverie.



More from FFTT Web site: Forest for the Trees is a not-for-profit public mural project in Portland, Oregon. The mural project promotes public visual expression; collaboration; and community engagement with contemporary art and the creative process. In August 2013, FFTT united seventeen artists from around the world to paint ten Portland murals.

This August, twenty local and international artists will come together for a week in Portland to paint more than a dozen pieces on public walls. FFTT aims to bring opportunity for local and visiting artists, and to share their gifts on a large public scale in Portland—a city already known as a creative hub and home to many talented artists.

Seen at the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival, No. 21, July 3, 2014 - a funky good time at the end of my first day!

Three members of the Goodfoot Allstars, on stage from 9:45 to 11 p.m. I know that's Farnell Newton on trumpet, but I don't know the names of the other two. Farnell, can you help me, please? Thanks! And with the other guys in the other photos, too?

Found on the blues festival Web site: The Goodfoot Allstars are now in their 8th year of this high-caliber tribute to the Godfather of soul: James Brown! This band was formed from a large cast of Portland musicians that have played the Goodfoot the last several years, including such past members as Scott Pemberton, Scott Law, and Jans Ingber. You can expect to be funked to the core with an incredible collection of musicians delivering a big sound, phenomenal dance cuts, and the kind of music that just makes you wanna shake your booty into the wee hours! The Goodfoot Allstars are: Carlton Jackson, Asher Fulero, Tye North, Devin Phillips, Darvey Santner, Farnell Newton, Doug Lewis, and Bruce Withycombe.



Quite a crowd enjoyed every note of these beloved James Brown tunes!



Keyboards.



Guitars and bass.

By 10:45 p.m. I realized I had better head for the bus stop or I would miss the last bus of the night--I didn't want to have to wait for or pay for a cab. It all worked out and I was home in no time, ready to rest up for Day Two. However, it was not to be.

I woke up at 5:30 a.m. suffering from what turned out to be a mild case of food poisoning. I know it was mild because I've suffered for real through two other full-blown food poisoning episodes! Anyway, I never got to use the other three days on my ticket, I missed the fireworks on July 4. I could go on and on, but, to tell you the truth, I was just happy to get well enough to return to work on July 8, just in time to work three days before I realized that a painful urinary tract infection seemed to have taken up residence in my body. Turned out it was a kidney infection--I was sick as a dog for days.

By the time July came to an end weeks later, I had fully recovered from both of these episodes of ill health, my allergies had quit bothering me, and I slowly but surely worked at becoming stronger because I knew that on October 5, I'd be flying off to England and Scotland for a great tour, returning home late the night of October 16.

Seen at the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival, No. 20, July 3, 2014 - Mr. Statue, after sundown

Mr. Statue, after sundown. Christmas lights make me happy! So does Mr. Statue.

Seen at the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival, No. 19, July 3, 2014 - spangled star?

Next colors that caught my eye--this blue and white star on one of the boats out on the Willamette. I didn't even notice the flag or the red lamp thing beside the man until I had uploaded the photo. I like watching the lights on the star change, but this is my favorite configuration of those which I photographed, so I'm sharing it with y'all. Enjoy! Oh, I forgot. How much money do you think is floating there as their owners enjoy the music--I assume the boats are all personal property, unless someone leased or rented a boat for the blues festival. And this is only a small section of the boats gathered there--they start showing up a week or so before the blues festival begins. I wonder how the music sounds out there, behind the stages and speakers?

Seen at the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival, No. 18, July 3, 2014 - a couple of color-coordinated ladies

Color and its presence in more that one aspect is something I notice all of the time. Color almost always entices me to take a photo--as long as I have the time to get the camera in place. Naturally, I couldn't resist these two color-coordinated ladies sitting not too far from me. The lady with the chartreuse jacket--I wonder if she realizes her clothing totally matches her friend's chair? And the lady with the chartreuse chair cover, wearing the purple top. Did she wear it because it matches the purple case on her phone? Finally, take look at their hair, so close in color. I'm tickled that I got this photo of these two in the crowd at the blues fest.

Seen at the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival, No. 17, July 3, 2014 - a bit more Los Lonely Boys

I really like these brothers and their music. I left my seat and headed for the Music Millenium canopy, thinking I could get in line, buy a CD and have the guys sign it. By the time I got my ol' self over there, the waiting crowd was huge, spreading across the entire width of their CD-selling space. So, I took photos instead. I like the smile on Henry's face as he looks up at a fan.



You can see how many folks packed into the space there in front of the guys, which represents only a portion of the huge crowd. I like this photo because it shows how intently each brother--JoJo, Ringo, and Henry--is signing folks' merchandise. I think that's speaks well of their respect for their fans.