“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 […]

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 […]