Here’s Paul Smith standing next to the shelter he built recently in one long weekend in our back garden. After summer #1 of the pandemic we realized our great luck at having a peaceful spot to sequester, but were pleased to have Paul agree (after we saw the shelter he built for our son and […]
Category: Architecture
Enough is Enough…
…as we like to think, but there’s always a bit more coming at us. Here we are at the end of the 26th week of quarantine. I now own at least 15 masks of varying types to go with any outfit, except I don’t need outfits because I don’t go anywhere…but…I might? We have managed […]
“A Gasp of Delight”
I’m having a one-person Maira Kalman reading festival since I discovered Alibris as an antidote to Amazon. I don’t buy many books these days, but these books have such appeal for me…she’s an artist, writer, illustrator, wit. In 2011 Kalman was invited to curate an exhibition of her favorite things from the Cooper-Hewitt Museum collection […]
A View from the Top
This is the second state Capitol Building here in Salem…the one that burned on April 25, 1935. Many many photographs of the views of the surrounding town were taken from the top of this cupola. One of the early views of Salem though was a drawn as an aerial map …before photos were readily available… […]
April 25, 1935
Here is an iconic moment in time for Salem, and for our neighborhood. On April 25, 1935 (85 years ago from this writing) a raging fire consumed the roof and copper dome of this, Oregon’s second State Capitol building built in 1874. It was designed by the Portland firm of architects Justus F. Krumbein and […]
Visiting
These last few weeks I’ve been dropping in. Sometimes I was delivering dishes from my “transfer ware give-away,” or checking in to see how the dishes look in place, maybe seeing an art exhibit or looking at beautiful Japanese fabric…various. This has meant some pleasant conversation and lots of great visuals. Instead of a tight […]
Kyle Cook at the Helzer Gallery
You still have 10 days to go see Seattle painter Kyle Cook’s show (https://www.pcc.edu/galleries/2019/01/14/events-excavations-constructions/) at the Helzer Gallery at Portland Community College Rock Creek Campus, gallery hours 9-5:30 M-F…up until February 22, 2019. The paintings are handsome with a map-like quality which hovers between landscape and abstraction. Bits of the road are embedded in the […]
Dang It!!
Did you ever see an idea that you just wish YOU had had…in fact that almost makes you swoon with sadness that you DIDN’T have it? Well, occasionally I do…and usually it’s an idea so good but so unrepeatable, you can’t even steal it. My stress relief is reading (well okay, “looking at”…) World of […]
Fall in CCRHD
The Court Chemeketa Residential Historic District (CCRHD) is one great neighborhood. It’s close to downtown, to Willamette University, to the State Capitol and campus, walk-able and tree lined…but best of all it’s just a neighborhood of exceptional people and staunch GARDENERS. Last week in the middle of a beautiful but scarily warm and sunny fall […]
A Quilt from Kenya
All summer long I’ve been working on a vibrant quilt. It’s not of my making but I’ve had the great good fortune to be part of the process, and my work on this quilt has given me a hopeful feeling about the creative work of the world and people of goodwill. Here it is, just […]