Nothing gets us going like a nice, long downward scroll through a bunch of inspiring
photos. Here are a few we’ve been fixated on lately—click the pic to check the blog:
Swallowtail Society
Para Naiv
Grass Doe
Itwon’tfuckingkillyou
Non Surveillee
Jennilee Marigomen
Something about the barrage of images from Japan and Libya over the course of the last few weeks reminded me of the film Baraka, which was released almost twenty years ago. The movie has no plot or narrative, instead relying on powerful imagery and a dramatic soundtrack to convey a deeply resonant message about the relationship between mankind and nature, mankind and each other, civilization and the wild, good and evil, and the common thread that connects it all.
Music by Dead Can Dance draws you into the imagery; the lack of narration lets you draw your own conclusions. In today’s digital world, where we consume visuals in a montage-like way, this film forces you to slow the carousel down a bit and meditate on the blessing that is Earth.
Japan is facing a monumental challenge in the wake of last week’s earthquake, tsunami and the resulting volatility of several nuclear power plants. In times like these, we ask ourselves what we can do. Several artists/craftspeople have started to contribute by donating proceeds from the sale of their work to relief efforts. A few of our favorites are displayed above (top to bottom):
Corter Leather | For Japan Bracelet | $20 to benefit the Red Cross
Wall Space Gallery | Bunny Face by Stella Kalaw | $50 to benefit Direct Relief International and Habitat for Humanity (see complete Life Support Japan collection)
W+K Studio | Help Japan Poster Series | Minimum $25 donation to benefit the Red Cross
Michael Rubenstein | Selected Prints to Help Japan | $100-$150 to benefit Japan Relief Efforts
Grant Cornett | Prints via TheLivest1.com (scroll down) | $50 to benefit the Red Cross
It’s Friday and the sun has broken through, giving us a taste of spring. Biking with somebody you’ve got a crush on to somewhere you can get a buzz on is one of the things we look forward to most when the mercury rises. Which brings to mind a couple pieces of art that capture that feeling, no matter what the weather is doing. The top image is a poster available for $10 from Buy Olympia and the second is from PaperCutsbyJoe on Etsy, the ideal $40 “paper anniversary” gift.
Now that the Portlandia hype is simmering down a little, we’re settling into watching the show like normal people (ie, on-demand or via youtube clips). A few episodes ago, our Riding Jacket made a cameo alongside another Pacific Northwest classic, Kyle MacLachlan, who plays Portland’s yoga ball-bouncing mayor.
So far, they’ve poked fun at Stumptown’s bike culture, ad agencies, book stores, locavores and adult night clubs, to name a few. Now IFC is giving them a second season, proving that Portland humor has national appeal. Which Portland stereotypes do you think they still need to tackle?
Timberline Ski Area on Mount Hood reported 8 inches of rain on Sunday January 16th. Not only did it wreak havoc on the snow conditions, it brought the Sandy River to the 3rd highest flood level in recorded history. Tyler Malay and Alexandra Erickson captured footage of Mother Nature taking course, swallowing 50 foot trees (at 1:21) and washing away Lolo Pass Road. It’s simply stunning.
embedded by Embedded Video
vimeo Direkt
Ever since I was young, I’ve been fascinated by maps. As a child, I would raid my parents’ dusty collection of National Geographics, wallpapering my room with the muted browns and greens and blues of their intricate borders and shaded topography. Perhaps the impulse to live among those maps was an early manifestation of the wanderlust that’s kept me on the move since leaving home, or possibly the maps themselves are to blame for my desire to see the places 
they represented. Either way, while those maps are long gone, the fascination continues: today, whether it’s Google maps or a historical print, show me a map and I fall into the contours of its coastlines, the mazes of its metropolitan streets.
More recently, I’ve begun collecting maps from the places I lived. So when I stumbled across Studio MKO’s beautiful cut-out maps of American and International cities, my only disappointment was that they hadn’t yet done Portland. Fortunately, they also offer this beautiful (if less mind-blowingly intricate) series of pen & ink city maps, including a wide selection of cities—including Stumptown.
See the entire collection at Supermarket.
If you haven’t already, check out this beautiful film interpreting the movements of real dancers into surreal and evocative animation. Then check out the behind the scenes vid, which offers an inspiring glance at what can happen when artists collaborate across fields. Moving stuff.
[Recipients of Nau's 2009 Grant For Change, Sara Joy Steele and Benjamin Drummond create multimedia stories about people, nature and climate change. They sent us this update on their progress on their next series of stories. -Ed.]
Benj and I are making steady progress on our new series for Facing Climate Change. I’m logging audio for the salmon story, we just completed another round of fieldwork for our heath story and we recently presented at the North Cascades Youth Leadership conference. We’re also working to line up funding to complete the series. One of the ways that we do that is by helping other people tell important stories. . . and we just finished a new one!
Hozomeen is about a locally abundant and distinctive tool stone found exclusively in the northern Cascade range of Washington and British Columbia. Over the last two decades, archeologist Bob Mierendorf has studied quarries near today’s Ross Lake reservoir that reveal a 10,000 year long record of indigenous involvement with this rugged, high-mountain landscape.
The word Hozomeen means “sharp, like a sharp knife.” Its story cuts across time and place, cultures and borders, archeology and oral histories, connecting us all as human beings. As Bob says, we’re all descended from people who used stone to make their tools. “It’s what put food on the table for thousands of years.”
Watch Hozomeen or visit our blog for more of the back story.
Beautiful film images from Norway’s Fjordland. Welcome winter.
(Embedding prohibited, so hit the link to vimeo, turn on HD and blow it up to full screen.)
The Thought Kitchen is our effort at collective inquiry and its power to affect change. Have you ever noticed how the party is always in the kitchen? There are more walls to lean on and people are energized by the proximity to food and drink. Well, welcome to our kitchen, where we hope to tap into everything we love about that feeling—community, vivacious exchange, food for thought.
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