inspiring shot in the arm

Because today is a holiday, my oldest son has no school. I agreed to drive him to Portland to spend time with his two buddies who also love computer programming and collaborate on projects together with him. The forecast said it would be mighty rainy, so although I thought I'd take Cyrus for a (free today) stroll through the Japanese Gardens not too far from where we'd be, I thought instead we'd go to the Portland Art Museum and/or the Contemporary Crafts Gallery, now called the Museum of Contemporary Craft. It has moved since I was last there, which was before my son Noah was born, maybe in 1993. I was throwing pots at the time and working as a ceramics lab assistant at Portland Community College under Wally Schwab, an accomplished potter trained at Alfred. Wally was well acquainted with a fairly well-known couple who produced pottery together out of their studio in northern California, Otto and Viveka Heino. They made huge vessels, and we went to their reception and open house. Dave (my husband) became famous that day because he got his photo in The Oregonian, paper cup in hand. Anyway...

So Cyrus and I headed first to the Crafts Museum, or so we thought we were going to do, but unfortunately, Cy got sick in the car. Fortunately though, he had nylon pants on and fortunately, my car has plasticized rubber flooring and fortunately, I used to live in that area of Portland so I remembered where the store was to get some paper towels and moist wipes. He was fine once all was cleaned up, although my car doesn't smell very good right now. No regurgitation would get in our way, so off we went to the Craft Museum. While walking to the museum, we passed a couple of galleries, and stopped at one, the Augen Gallery, which had some very engaging paintings by Jef Gunn visible from the sidewalk. The site doesn't quite convey the energy of his work or some of the nuance and depth that's more apparent in person. Cy and I had a great time looking at the work. There were even some big-name pieces there by Chuck Close, Frank Stella, Picasso and Miro. Great experience for both of us. Then we went on to the Craft Museum, where all things were colorful and alive with fun! The sculpture exhibition there was fantastic - there is a dedicated site for it here. Who would think to make a closed vessel made of scotch tape? Or melt a bunch of plastic toy soldiers into the shape of a low bowl? Cy was mesmerized by the sights, and particularly liked the sculpture made of hair combs. Very, very exciting. We wrapped up our Portland adventure by stopping by Knit/Purl. I bought a skein of lovely cashmere and silk yarn for a Christmas gift I plan to make for my sister, then we went on to pick up my oldest son and drove back home to Salem. It was an invigorating trip, such a breath of fresh air, and I had no idea how parched my mind had become being away from the cultural center that Portland is. I miss it for that.