Category Archives: Art

The Sidewalk, Part 2: Poetry

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Perhaps it was the Witch’s Hat that cast the final spell: I now seek out poetry.

I never saw that coming. Like many people, I was well into my adulthood and still believed poetry was something to be suffered. My conversion to poetry has been slow. My friend Kara was the first to warm me to the idea of poetry. “What’s not to like? Sixty seconds and you’re done.” That took the fright out of poetry. I didn’t seek it out, but I could approach poetry without suffering.

Then last year, I ran across a poet in one of Portland’s farmers markets. Tristan, using an old fashioned typewriter, would write a poem for you while you shopped. I think poetry perhaps, like vegetables, looks better in the fresh air. But here also was a piece of art that I could afford to commission. I commissioned two poems that spring. Yes, I puffed my chest as I typed that. I commissioned . . . Continue reading →

Rose Nylund of St. Olaf and Ash Wednesday

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In Steel Magnolias, the curmudgeonly Ouiser “Weezer” Boudreaux says to Annelle, “Yes, Annelle, I pray! Well, I do! There, I said it, I hope you’re satisfied.”

I like Steel Magnolias. There, I said it. I hope you’re satisfied, because I watch it often. In fact, I had a copy of it with me on my train ride from Portland to the Twin Cities last fall and lent it to the conductor, while my neighbor on the trip and I traded quotes back and forth. (“Miss Truvy, I promise that my personal tragedy will not interfere with my ability to do good hair.”)

I also like The Golden Girls. There, now it’s all out. I used to watch The Golden Girls with my grandmother when I was growing up and she lived just next door. Rose Nylund from the mythical town of St. Olaf, Minnesota, was my favorite character. I loved her stories. “You know, this reminds me of the big dance back in St. Olaf to kick off Pretzel Week. My Uncle Gunther, after the Great Beernut Shortage of ’29. . .”

I mention all of this because I went to Mass yesterday at St. Olaf Catholic Church in downtown Minneapolis. There, I said it. Feel free to make your own connections; I just needed to get to the start of my story. Continue reading →

Olympic Sculpture Park

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I lived in Seattle for more than ten years before moving to Portland (via Las Vegas, but that’s a story for another day). Fixing a departure date from Seattle on my calendar back in 2008, I suddenly realized that once again I was leaving a city having barely scratched the surface of everything it has to offer. I’ve seen more on vacations than the cities I lived in. So I created a bucket list – although it felt more like a panic list as the time slipped away. Continue reading →

The Green Man of Portland

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I like a good myth. So when I was walking through Old Town in Portland and came across a sculpture with the inscription “Sightings of small green archers have been reported,” I was intrigued.

In a letter home dated March 17, 2011, I wrote, “On my walk back from the garden, I passed this sculpture. I hadn’t noticed it before.”

By that point, I had been walking through Old Town on my way home for more than a month. The base of the sculpture alone is over six feet tall. How does one not notice a towering sculpture?

The sculpture is part of “The Legend of the Green Man of Portland” by Daniel Duford.

In the legend, the Green Man is an archer, a small green man. The legend includes a stag, a towering tree, and The Greenwood, a building that appears from nowhere. Continue reading →