Portland TBT

I took a lovely two day road trip to Portland, Oregon, with my mom over winter break. I never got around to posting photos from it, but I'm using the excuse of Throwback Thursday- TBT to finally share my memories of the trip. Our travels primarily consisted of visiting the Portland Art Museum, and eating our way through downtown.

SEA - PDX: Day 1

We stopped in Olympia for a quick snack and coffee pick me up. 

We made it to Portland mid-evening.

The first stop after checking into the hotel was food. 

We opted for dinner at Thai Peacock, a local Thai restaurant...delicious delicious delicious.

We wandered the surrounding downtown area for the rest of the evening. 

Powell's Books. Iconic.
My, "I'm crossing the street and don't have time to stop but want a picture of this" picture.

Bopped into a little vintage store called Ray's Ragtime. I found a cute gold chain bracelet with a heart charm. It was marked down to only $4 (shown below, far right). 

Unique pieces of jewelry are my favorite kind of mementos to purchase on trips.  I've made it a personal mission to find a cute and cheap - yet good quality- bracelet in every new place I visit. 

Below are bracelets I've found over the past 2 years while traveling:

[Far left: Spain. Second from left with blue/gold/silver: London. Middle with black rocks: Iceland. Second from right: London. Far right: Portland]

           *Both bracelets from London were found in a vintage market and were £2 each - score!

Attempting to be artsy: featuring downtown Christmas tree.

Stumbled upon the most AMAZING frozen yogurt place, where the sun did always indeed shine. I consider myself a frozen yogurt connoisseur, and I've never seen a shop this impressive. Tartberry Frozen Yogurt is truly somethin' else. It is cluttered with art, happy affirmations and every topping imaginable. I wish I could teleport Tartberry to Seattle. 

Day 2: Portland Art Museum

[Antoine Monnoyer, Still Life with Flowers, Fruits, a Parrot and a Monkey, 1690-99]

[Italian Artisans ~ Venetian, 18th Century, detail of Chinoiserie Clockstand]

[Damien Hirst, 5 Skulls, 2010]

[Judy Chicago, Pasadena Lifesaver, Blue Series #4, 1969-1970]

PortlandArtMuseum: Greenberg Collection

[ABOUT TO GET ALL ART HISTORIAN-Y UP IN HERE]

After over an hour exploring the PAM, I turned the corner on the modern art floor and discovered this U-shaped gallery. Upon entering the room I immediately noticed a plaque that stated the specific works in this room were a part of Clement Greenberg's collection.

This may not mean anything to the average person walking through the museum, but it means something to me from my art history studies. Clement Greenberg was an incredibly influential formalist art critic, essayist, and promoter of the abstract expressionism movement. He was also close friends with Jackson Pollock and acted as his therapist. Greenberg strictly believed in art formalism. Formalism prioritizes the emphasis of artistic elements (line, shape, color, composition) over the emphasis on subject matter. Abstract expressionism focuses on pure expression and emotion rather than any recognizable subject matter; thus the ideal art form in Greenberg's opinion. Greenberg's essays discuss his concept of the "aesthetic emotion", an emotion that arises from someone when is viewing art and feels something solely from the work's artistic aesthetic; not something based on a narrative or subject matter. 

In my art history classes I have always known Greenberg as critic, never a collector. It was fascinating to me to see the specific art works that Greenberg truly valued. Though I think there are ways to analyze art beyond strict Greenbergian formalism, I did find some truth to his 

notion of the aesthetic emotion while viewing this art.

I found the work below, Little Rain, to be particularly moving. The picture doesn't do it justice, the real work is at least 6 feet tall. Thick paint lifts off the canvas and creates movement and dimension. The lifted ridges of paint resemble drops of rain streaming down a window. The contrast of red and green colors in the lower left corner smoothly draw the eye from the top to the bottom of the piece. I could go on and on...but this piece definitely gave me some feelz so thanks Greenberg.

[Walter Darby Bannard, Little Rain, 1972]

[Friedel Dzubas, Found, 1972]

[Peter Young, Number Six, 1972]

Day 2 Continued
Italian food for lunch, window shopping and more.

I can't remember the name of this restaurant,
 but it was a short walk from the Portland Art Museum!

Stumbled upon this unique store while wandering downtown, "BOYSFORT: A Manthropology." The name could not be more accurate. This is literally a 20-something-hipster-man's version of Anthrologie. Lovely though - very Portland.

BOYSFORT also doubled as a gardening store? Sounds confusing but it somehow aesthetically worked. If only I had my own studio or office...such a cute way to store plants.

Last but certainly not least...
We loaded up on Voodoo Doughnuts before hitting the road to go home.

Did you really go to Portland if you didn't go to Voodoo Doughnuts?

The brick walls surrounding the entrance to Voodoo were covered in rainbow glitter.
I very much appreciate this and want the exterior of my future house to look like this.

Though it was exciting to finally visit Voodoo and admire the glitter walls, I didn't think their actual doughnuts were very impressive. Though their flavors are unique, the quality of their donuts seemed cheaply made. I don't think they compare to Top Pot Doughnuts, but call me a biased Seattlite. 

Until next time PDX...

❁ Cheers friends❁

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