As spring starts to feel more official, it’s time to start making fair-weather plans. On my list: A trip out to the WildCraft Studio School out in White Salmon, WA (about an hour’s drive from Portland). It was opened last year by artist Chelsea Heffner as a creative retreat, offering craft and textile-related classes in […]
Artsy
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Kickstarter, Games, and Portland
Monday morning, Kickstarter announced that the crowdfunding platform has received over $1 billion in pledges for projects around the world. $215 million of that has gone into games projects. That’s so much money, you guys. Kickstarter loves sharing its data, especially this data—but we went ahead and broke down some Portland-specific stats for you. First […]
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Kicked in the Head by The Light in the Piazza
Brud Giles There’s a fine literary tradition of young women losing their heads in Florence. It’s where Lucy Honeychurch gets over her hangups in one of my favorite books, A Room with a View; it’s where Isabelle Archer meets her future husband in Portrait of a Lady. James and Forster were on my mind while […]
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Dreem Street
As you assemble your strategy for approaching First Thursday later this week (including where to grab a drink, perhaps?), consider this: Dreem Street is a collaboration between Eric Mast AKA E*Rock—who you’ve no doubt encountered in at least one of his various guises as DJ, musician, animator, poster artist—and L.A. artist Matthew Chambers. Essentially it’s […]
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Free Trip to Venice! (Almost!)
The very suggestive painting “Street Musicians” by Bernardo Strozzi, on display at the Portland Art Museum. The last thing you probably want to do on this sunny Friday is spend the evening in a drafty museum, HOWEVER: Today is Free Fourth Friday at the Portland Art Museum! Really short notice—it starts in T-1/2 hour—but it […]
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How a Botched Enquirer Article Led to a Playwrighting Foundation Honoring Philip Seymour Hoffman
This story in the New York Times—about how the National Enquirer mischaracterized Philip Seymour Hoffman’s relationship with playwright David Bar Katz, and how Katz threatened litigation and then used the settlement money to establish an annual $45,000 playwright’s grant—is legitimately heartwarming, in a bittersweet kind of a way. And it’s a reminder of how important […]
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Fisher Poets Preview in Portland, Tonight!
I’m seriously disappointed that I can’t make it to Astoria this weekend for the 17th annual Fisher Poets Gathering—and to be honest, there’s still a tiny chance I might blow off adult obligations and head north for one of my favorite events on the Oregon arts calendar. Like the better-known cowboy poetry genre, fisher poetry […]
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“Florida Man” (Unintentionally?) Does Something Artistically Interesting
• “@FloridaMan” is the best Twitter feed on the internet. Florida Man Destroys Museum’s Ai Weiwei Vase in Protest, Doesn’t Realize It’s Worth $1 Million | http://t.co/syzHIqPKJL— Florida Man (@_FloridaMan) February 17, 2014 • According to the Miami New Times, the Florida Man who destroyed an Ai Wei Wei vase at the Pérez Art Museum […]
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RIP, Maggie Estep
Novelist, performance artist, and poet Maggie Estep reportedly died of a heart attack on Monday, at age 50. Oof.
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Portland Cartoonist Erika Moen Launches a Patreon (Also, Patreon Sounds Pretty Brilliant)
Oh Joy, Sex Toy by Erika Moen Local cartoonist Erika Moen—who, it should be noted, has been interviewed in the Mercury, and has also appeared at Comics Underground, the comics reading series Alison and I produce—has a campaign up on Patreon, a newish crowdfunding site that, until this morning, I hadn’t even heard of, let […]
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Inside the Old Post Office/Soon-to-Be PNCA Arlene and Harold Schnitzer Center for Art and Design
You might already be aware that the Pacific Northwest College of Art is in the midst of an impressive expansion (here’s my post on the new dorms from back in August), or that part of it includes Portland’s original US Post Office, the grand old lady at 511 NW Broadway that I, at least, had […]
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Submit Your Event for Listing in the Mercury‘s Spring Arts Guide
This March, the Mercury is releasing our first-ever arts guide, a magazine devoted to the artists, shows, and festivals on our radar this spring. It’ll be as comprehensive as we can make it. We’re excited! If you’d like your performance, reading, or art event listed in the Mercury‘s Spring Arts Guide, please email details of […]