Ruby traveled via train from Olympia to Portland (and back) and has this to report:

Getting around Portland via mass transit is easy, especially with the TriMet Trip Planner, so after rendezvousing with our friend Messy Ann Banksy, we made a quick pilgrimage to the reincarnated 24 Hour Church of Elvis and had a lovely lunch at the Pearl Bakery before we boarded the #6 bus to the east side.  Our destinations: Rerun (a thrift store that we found out is closed on Tuesdays, much to our dismay) and SCRAP (which, according to yelp, sells art supplies, if by “art supplies” you mean bins and shelves full of inexpensive, reusable junk suitable for making recycled art, oh yeah!).  SCRAP (School and Community Reuse Action Project) also has an eco-friendly reuse art gallery named Re:Vision, which has interesting exhibits that change every two months (be sure to check out the upcoming Mar Goman show opening May 6)

  Ruby Re-Usable at SCRAP

From there, we used our transfer to get back on the #6 bus and explore some of the fun shops along East Burnside, including Redux.  We look forward to Redux’s April 2nd art opening, which will feature a group embroidery show entitled One Stitch Forward, One Stitch Back, with 24 artists (including Diem Chau) taking needlecraft back to those roots incorporating repurposed materials while adding a contemporary twist to the art.

Hippo Hardware is always an amazing place, wish we had stopped at the Doug Fir Lounge AFTER and not before, would have made shopping a little bit more coherent.  Back on the bus (we were able to use our transfer again, wow, all for $2.30), we went to the Museum of Contemporary Craft and participated in Frau Fiber’s trash fashion recycled performance art.  Oh, and did I mention we ran into Jef Gunn and admired his encaustics at Augen Gallery?!

Messy Ann Banksy peddles for Frau Fiber

Also in the Pearl District, the Lovejoy Columns project combines my two loves, recycled art and graffiti: “…  from 1948 to 1952, Greek immigrant and artist Athanasios Efthimiou Stefopoulos, known in America as “Tom”, created a series of paintings on the supporting pillars of the old Lovejoy bridge ramp in Portland, Oregon … beginning in 1997, a rescue effort was undertaken to protect the paintings from the ravages of time and development pressure … ” 

Our tour guide for the evening, Laura G, took us to her neighbor Jim Skinner’s place in North Portland, where our eyeballs were overwhelmed by his art: from the fence to the front yard to the roof to the chicken coop and every surface inside his house, Jim’s obsessive, politically-tinged and sometimes blasphemous work was everywhere.  MAB regretted turning down Jim’s offer of tequila with hot peppers that he had just brought back from Mexico, but we did have drinks at the Secret Society and dinner at El Toro before retiring to the Mark Spencer Hotel for the evening.

Jim Skinner’s Brahalla with MAB, RR-U and LG

Breakfast the next morning was at Voodoo Doughnut, where we shared a Voodoo Doll doughnut before perusing Powell Books, and then Ruby returned to Oly  and MAB headed off to her national librarian convention.  Next time, MAB wants us to go to Cannibal Art  and discover some of the places Carye Bye mentions on Hidden Portland

See all of Ruby’s Portland pics HERE and  then tell us what YOU suggest we check out in Portland (leave a comment)