Got Yer Culture Right Here

Picture from Maryhill Museum website - the parking lot was chock-full on Sat.

The awesome thing about living here is that there is always something awesome happening. Two nights ago, we went into the Columbia River Gorge to Stonehenge near Maryhill, Washington. Portland Actors Ensemble performed King Lear out there last night. Spoiler alert: When Goneril and Regan kicked him out into the stormy heath, we could totally relate. Although the skies were blue and sunny, the wind was really strong, and it was darned chilly. What a fun setting, especially as the sun set.


The whole place was jam packed with people sitting in little chairs or standing. Some intrepid boys even climbed up on those shorter stone pillars and sat - great view, but I'll bet their butts were pretty cold.

Lear teaches an important lesson in parenting. Never trust your children, no matter how much they say they love you, and don't give them all your stuff before you're dead because you'll wind up wandering in the wilderness.




On Sunday, poor Professor X had tons of grading left to do, so Super Son and I went to the Portland Art Museum for the Escher exhibition. Escher is one of his favorite artists, and the curator was giving a lecture.

Last summer, as we'd traveled to the east coast, we'd been frustrated that there were virtually no Escher prints on exhibition in at the art museums in Chicago, Philadelphia or DC. I'd mentioned our disappointment to one of the information desk people at the National Gallery of Art. She explained the works were very delicate, and kept in archival storage.

She then told me that we could just schedule an appointment to see them!!

Which we did.

Much goodness in here!

Super Son and I visited the archivist, where he was instructed how to handle the prints, and we spent a few very fun hours looking at dozens of them. He wore white cotton gloves, and carefully lifted each piece of art out of the storage boxes. Most of the art either depicted impossible realities or morphing creatures. It was heavily influenced by symmetry and geometric patterns. We learned an important lesson: it pays off to whine complain communicate. We'd never have had this opportunity if I hadn't spoken to the nice info desk lady.

The Portland Art Museum exhibition included some very different types of pieces. To be sure, it had plenty of the iconic works like Night and Day, Ascending and Descending and Metamorphosis III. And we saw the wood blocks created to produce several of the prints on display. The exhibition gave us a better understanding of Escher’s printmaking process, but it also exposed us to some more realistic images.

This was probably my favorite:

Puddle, 1952.

Can you believe this was created from a woodcut? That blows me away.

Although we're about to embark upon a long road trip around the country, I feel really blessed to live where I do. There's always something beautiful here.