Thelma Johnson Streat--coming soon to a neighborhood near me. (visitors welcome)

I know I have been a neglectful blogger, but it's all for a good cause. We are mounting the largest show on record of the artist Thelma Johnson Streat, who I have talked about many a time in this public forum. Today we hung three of the four shows associated with this year-long multi-person project. Talisman Gallery, Ampersand Vintage, and Guardino Gallery are all ready to go from today through Art Hop day, May 16. An additional large exhibition will only be on display during our daylong event located at our office space. For more information, visit the Art on Alberta website by clicking here.

After years of mounting shows that I felt were important to my personal career, I must say that there's a level of satisfaction coming from this project that is very much more meaningful. In a neighborhood that my family lived in over a century ago, I am helping to mount the largest showing ever of another Oregonian who was a vibrant artist many years before my day--a woman who because of her gender and the color of her skin, did not receive the recognition she deserved. To this day, Thelma Johnson Streat is barely known even in the art community in her home state, yet in her time she touched people all over the world. I am so proud to be part of this project and hope that this show will help to make her a more prominent part of Oregon's history.

There's information on our website if you're interested in learning more, but for now, this erstwhile blogger, artist, and nonprofit organization organizer has definitely got to hit the sack.

Art on Alberta is still in need of financial support for Art Hop. Click here to donate to us and get a tax deduction for your generosity! Details about the show can also be seen on our website www.artonalberta.org.

Calling all Art Angels!

Hello Beautiful People!

In the past four years, I've been involved with my neighborhood arts nonprofit called Art on Alberta. This is the tenth year of our organization, who brings art-themed celebrations, public art, and exhibitions to this multicultural neighborhood in Portland. Our biggest event is Art Hop, which happens annually on the third weekend in May. We spend an entire year preparing for this event, when we close this major street down from automobile traffic, and invite people from all over the region to help us celebrate the work of one artist. In the past we have honored many who are known in the region: Lillian Pitt, Adrienne Cruz, Philemon Reid, etc. The featured artist's work is spread among several galleries on the street, and we balance that with street vendors, local art guild demonstrations, a parade, an art activity area for kids, music stages and street performers.

One of our board members, Kathe Swäback, connected us with an amazing opportunity to show a very significant body of work this year. Thelma Johnson Streat was a painter and dancer in the 1930's, whose work was internationally recognized in her day--in fact one of her paintings was the first piece by an African American art to be purchased and in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Streat was an Oregonian and attended PNCA, which was then affiliated with the Portland Art Museum. Her family still lives in the area, and has been quietly purchasing her works back for years through online auctions, and storing them away. This is the first time Thelma Johnson Streat's work will be gathered all in one area for a total of 37 paintings and about 10 historical documents and photographs. The family has worked for 20 year to bring her art “home” and this will be an amazing showing of this international artist and dancer.

Although we have received grant support from the Oregon Arts Commission and RACC, we recently learned that we need to raise additional funds to properly appraise and insure this wonderful work. We feel that the message of Thelma Johnson Streat is a great symbol of our community, and hope her personal story will inspire others too.

I'm asking anyone who understands the significance of this project to become a "Community Builder" of Art on Alberta. This is a $100 level donation, which also entitles you to a year's membership, recognition on our website, plus a tax deduction, as we are a 501(c)(3) organization. You can click here to go to our website to download a membership form or look on the Art Hop page to learn more about Art on Alberta and all we do for our little community.

Thank you so much for even considering the support of my small but mighty organization. I hope at the very least, that you can come see the show on May 16.

what to do with your whopping tax return

it's not my rubber band ball....but I have one just like this that I've been accumulating one mail delivery at a time for the past ten years! I love Etsy, but have never seen a listing quite like this....until today. Enjoy.

(click here to see the actual listing or read the text I've transposed below)
----
Ok, so it isn't quite the world's largest rubber band ball. But it is big as FRAK. And the beauty of this one is that it is perfectly, beautifully smooth and made in all one color. It's like a sculpture or work of contemporary art, really. Or a seed for something much larger and badder.

This ain't no cheat ball with a wadded up piece of paper or a superball inside of it. This is 100% bonafide rubber bands, all the way to the core. Took 10 years to make, using the rubber bands the mail came wrapped in. That's quite an accomplishment.

How much is ten years of collecting and assembling worth? I have no idea. I figure about 3 minutes daily assembling this bad girl (yes it's a she---can't you tell? She likes looking at herself in the mirror), six days a week, which comes to about 313.02 days per year for a total of 3130.2 days...if I were making 50 cents a minute per each day the labor on this would equal $4,695.30. Put that up to a dollar per minute (that's more like it. Hey, we have a high cost of living here in NYC!), the total would come to $9,390.60. And that's without profit.

OK, I can't ask for $4,695.30 to $9,390.60 plus for this.

Or can I?

Hm.

Here are the stats, for all you stat-minded folk:

Circumference: 29.75" around (75.6 cm)

Height: 9 5/8" (24.5 cm)

Weight: 15.5 Lbs. (7.04 Kg or 1.107 Stone)!

Assemblage: 10 years, 3 min (or so) per day, after the mail


So ok, this is no 3,170 lb, 5ft high, 15.1 ft. circumference, 850,000 band holier-than-thou ball of rubber, OK? But it's nothing to sneeze at! And mine is much prettier and smoother.

Plus you can actually fit mine through the door into your home, and without having to roll it all the way from Chevy Chase, MD.

Tell you what. You buy this thing, I'm throwing in the postage. Now if that doesn't make you want to buy a ball of rubber in the worst recession since, well, I don't know what, ----hey---I don't know what else does.

If you ask nicely I'll throw in the teabags and pencils, too. :P

do you have to have it? click here to buy it now!

ikea insights

Ikea has a great section of their website where you can learn more about the design and making of a selection of their products. I'm mostly mesmerized by the wonderful design of the website, which reminds me of a Michele Gondry movie. Click here to go to the site.

Knit your way to the White House

Calling all knitters! CODEPINK is creating a beautiful, quilted cozy to cover the fence in front of the White House to honor Mother's Day. The message will be “We will not raise our children to kill another mother’s child”-inspired by Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation. It will be pieced together from individual squares knitted by YOU as part of the 24 hour Mother’s Day vigil for Women who live in War Zones. The best part is you don’t have to be an experienced knitter to help! This is perfect for knitters of all skill levels—and a great opportunity for those who want to learn! Celebrate the time honored tradition of the radical act of knitting. There's no excuses because newbies to the craft of knitting can click here for online instructions.

World digital Library (coming soon to a planet near you)

The World Digital Library will make available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from cultures around the world, including manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, architectural drawings, and other significant cultural materials. The objectives of the World Digital Library are to promote international and inter-cultural understanding and awareness, provide resources to educators, expand non-English and non-Western content on the Internet, and to contribute to scholarly research. Click here to bookmark their website so you'll be ready for action when they launch on April 21, 2009.

round two, coming up!

The first lecture of the talks about the possibility of the Museum of Contemporary Craft being acquired by PNCA is now online. Click here to download it. (warning--find yourself a nice quiet place to listen, the audio is very very soft)

And here's information about the next one. Mark your calendars!


Pacific Northwest College of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Craft invite you to participate in the upcoming Community Conversations regarding the integration of the two cultural institutions. Tim DuRoche, Community Program Manager at Portland Center Stage, will moderate the conversations on a variety of topics.

The Changing Dynamics of Craft and Design
6:30pm, April 9 | PNCA Swigert Commons

Featuring: Andrew Wagner, Editor-in-Chief of American Craft magazine; Namita Gupta Wiggers, Curator Museum of Contemporary Craft; JP Reuer, Chair of the MFA in Applied Craft and Design program, offered jointly by Oregon College of Art and Craft (OCAC) and Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA); and Karl Burkheimer, OCAC Wood Department Head.