11 September 2017

[pdx_art] Murals Overlooking Beautiful SE Grand Avenue

3491.
Whilst we were at the legendary Andy & Bax, finding a replacement messenger bag for the one I had that was wearing out (yes, I am a bearded man in Portland who carries his diary around in a shoulder bag, thanks for acknowledging that I fulfill the stereotype) I noticed, going in and going out, a couple of murals that I hadn't seen before. After finally settling on a properly effete and artistely poserly bag (the Rothco M-51 engineer's field bag, there, ya happy now, you judgemental bastards?) me and Wife™ returned to the car but since I was in dilettante art-blogger mode all of a sudden, I had to get some pictures, aren't I the nice one?

Anyway. Ahem.

These two beauties are on property looking out on SE Grand Avenue between SE Ash and SE Pine Streets. The first one caught my eye because it was kind of aggressive, the other, because it was soft and evocative.

Party of the first part:


The text reads NOTHING GOOD COMES EASY, and the legend is kind of its own indictment, because the good thing that doesn't come easy is an angle on that painting. Right, out of frame, the roofline belongs to a building that comes out all the way to the sidewalk on the east side of Grand, and obscures any sort of decent, direct view of it from there; another place it cannot be seen from is across Grand from there, and Grand is pretty wide for a Portland street, so at this point, I'm thinking that Olga Volo and Zach Yarrington, the attributed artists, while passionate about doing this painting, weren't too keen on actually having people see it, which actually kind of fits, because that's as Portland passive-aggressive as you can get.

I love the mural you guys, but I got a shot of it; I bested you. I won your little game.

The other one, much more accessible, was in the parking lot immediately north of that.


This one is so sweet and moody that it pretty much took the steam out of the bad attitude I worked up going up against the other creation there. If it references something, I'm not yet sure; but it's got a mixture of moody, melancholy, and calm going on that's quite seductive and appealing.

The artist is credited as Jade Rivera, and I fell in love with the painterly maker's mark, seen left in the small graphic, located in the upper left corner of the building's wall.

I enjoyed the chase and got a little bit of walking into my out-of-shape frame, which is kind of a bonus. But me and that other mural ... we're still gonna have words at some point. 

No comments: