New Paint

We added some color to our white-on-white-on-white interiors. We no longer live in a clinic! 😉 

Living room... before:

After:

Kitchen... before:

After:

Upstairs bathroom... before:

After:

Looking up the stairs... before:

After:

Office... before:

After:

Downstairs kitchen... before:

After:

Downstairs bathroom... before:

After:

Rockaway Beach

For my birthday in February, we went to stay in Rockaway Beach for about five days, and we explored the Oregon Coast in the Tillamook area.

Here's where we stayed. Fairly comfortable--except for the bedrooms! So we probably won't go there again 😉

Stairway to the third floor, with a stained glass porthole window:

We took along this beautiful sugar-free, grain-free cake, made by our favorite baker:

We enjoyed several pieces of beach-town art:

We finally made it to the Tillamook Creamery. No tours due to COVID-19, but they were happy to let us in to sell us food and gift shop items for consumption elsewhere:

Of course, every sunset was beautiful. We had a great view of Twin Rocks from the house where we were staying.

Here are Twin Rocks in the daylight:

We drove around Netarts Bay and saw the Three Arches:

We got home in time to enjoy a snowstorm:

And experience an ice storm (not as fun):

COVID-19

 As it was for everyone else, 2020 was a year of not getting out much for us. 

But before the first lockdown, we were able to visit a few things.

We went on a walking tour of some of Portland's civic buildings.

We saw this critter at City Hall:

And these critters at the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse:

This wall inside that courthouse was eerily prophetic for the year:

A dear friend came to visit us, and we went to see the Freakybuttrue Peculiarium. Many oddities to enjoy there, including a Space Chihuahua!

We went to a manga conference, not realizing that's what it was. A new culture for us! You could win this car in a contest; strangely, we forgot to enter the contest:

And near the end of February, we took a quick trip to San Diego to visit friends and family. Here is a door to a canyon:

Here's what's on the other side of the door:

And then we spent the rest of the year visiting only places like the MCU and other galaxies far, far away--and taking brief walks around our neighborhood. Masked up, of course!

Hank Willis Thomas

Over the holidays, we visited the Portland Art Museum to see the Hank Willis Thomas exhibit.

In my opinion, the word "impactful" is often overused, but we genuinely "felt" Thomas' work.

This piece is called 14,719 (2018), which is the number of stars on these 16 banners, and is also the number of people shot and killed by someone else in the United States in 2018:

14,719 (2018), by Hank Willis Thomas 2019

Here is more information on the piece:

Thomas has several series he creates art for. One is called Branded; the curation for this read in part:

For over fifteen years, Thomas has explored what he calls "the most ubiquitous language in the world": advertising. In his Branded series,  the artist adapts the visual strategies of marketing campaigns to call attention to the past and present systems of white capitalism that dehumanize Black people as possessions and commodities. 

...Thomas throws into sharp relief the association of [Absolute Vodka] with the class privilege of white consumers. Absolut Power reimagines an eighteenth-century abolitionist diagram of the British slave ship Brookes, its hull taking on the distinctive shape of the vodka bottle...

Here is Absolut Power:

Absolut Power, by Hank Willis Thomas 2003

More from the curation of Branded:

Other works suggest connections between slavery and the big business of sports. College athletes generate billions of dollars for universities and corporate sponsors, but are unpaid for their labor. Thomas considers the dilemma African American male athletes face with the promise of a career based on intense physical demands and the specter of "ownership" that teams and brand endorsements might hold over them. 

For example, this is Strange Fruit. Its curation reads, "Strange Fruit takes its title from a poem about lynching that was set to music and hauntingly recorded by Billie Holliday in 1939. Here Thomas combines symbols of lynching and sports excellence in a layered consideration of how African Americans continue to be placed on public display. In 2012, he stated that Strange Fruit 'explores the Black body as a spectacle in an age of a multibillion-dollar NCAA industry that's built primarily off of the free labor of descendants of slaves. It's not far-fetched to think that someone in the NBA is related to someone who was lynched.'"

Strange Fruit, by Hank Willis Thomas 2011

Here is the poem Strange Fruit by Abel Meeropol (1939), and sung by Billie Holliday (among others):

Southern trees bear a strange fruit

Blood on the leaves and blood at the root

Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze

Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees

Pastoral scene of the gallant South

The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth

Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh 

Then the sudden smell of burning flesh

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck 

For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck 

For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop 

Here is a strange and bitter crop  

--Abel Meeropol 

There were many more amazing works by Hank Willis Thomas on display. To see them, please visit his website at https://www.hankwillisthomas.com/.

As Thomas says:

This trip was way too short

After the museum, it was time to head to the airport. We were sorry to leave so soon; there was much more to explore in Minneapolis-Saint Paul.

For example, what's the story behind this Curling Club?! (Turns out it's the St. Paul Curling Club: "Founded in 1912, the St. Paul Curling Club is the largest curling club in the country with over 1,200 members." Who knew?!)

And we doubt it's true most of the year, but at least in mid- to late-October, the Twin Cities looks a lot like Portland, with similar architecture and similar trees:

Minneapolis tree

Portland tree. Separated at birth?!

Fortunately, getting to the airport was much easier than trying to leave it. Our Lyft driver just dropped us off at Terminal 2; we didn't have to wander around any parking garages:

And then we waited for our flight in the Delta Sky Club along with these fine people:

Minneapolis Institute of Art - More Art!

In addition to the Vietnam War exhibit, there was so much more to see.

Notice Elvis, the Lone Ranger and Tonto, the priest with his pants down, the pregnant "virgin":

Vatican Cafe, Jim Doenomie, 2014

The curation for this piece reads, "In 1875 Cheyenne and Kiowa warriors were forced to surrender to the United States government and then incarcerated thousands of miles from their homes on the plains...Plains men had historically illustrated their accomplishments on large animal hides. When hides became scarce, they transferred their skills to paper, often using sketchbooks or the ruled pages of accounting ledgers":

Books of drawings, Attributed to Ohet toint, circa 1870-90

About a year ago, we enjoyed a car exhibit at the Portland Art Museum, where we first met the Tatra, aka the Nazi killer:

Tatra T87 sedan, Hans Ledwinka, designed 1936, manufactured 1948

The museum has an extensive collection of African artifacts, as well as artifacts and information about the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade:

An Art Deco phonograph:

RCA Vitor Special portable phonograph, John Vassos, circa 1935

The curation for this piece reads, "While many artists were celebrating America's vastness and natural beauty, John Frederick Peto painted hyperrealistic trompe l'oeil (fool-the-eye) still lifes. Their somber mood and humble subjects speak of a nation still blighted by the destruction of the Civil War (1861-65). Affixed to this worn wooden door are objects that invite reflection on Abraham Lincoln's life: an image of the assassinated president, his birth and death dates, the nickname Abe. The 25-cent paper money and the coin resembling an Indian Head penny were privately issued Civil War currency":

Reminiscences of 1865, John Frederick Peto, 1904

Another Art Deco piece:

Covered tureen, Gisela Falke von Lilienstein, circa 1902