Autumn has most certainly arrived. The color palette of the city has suddenly changed and I am now enveloped in rusts, greys, greens and golds. Autumn not only brings with it new hues but a new freshness in the air. I can’t seem to get enough of walks lately. And with the walks come the need for nibbles. Today was delicious with treats from Vita Cafe and Blossoming Lotus.
Today, a quote (I love)Â from a book by Milan Kundera called Slowness:
“There is a secret bond between slowness and memory, between speed and forgetting. Consider this utterly commonplace situation: a man is walking down the street. At a certain moment, he tries to recall something, but the recollection escapes him. Automatically, he slows down. Meanwhile, a person who wants to forget a disagreeable incident he has just lived through starts unconsciously to speed up his pace, as if he were trying to distance himself from a thing still too close to him in time.
In existential mathematics, that experience takes the form of two basic equations: the degree of slowness is directly proportional to the intensity of memory; the degree of speed is directly proportional to the intensity of forgetting.”
Portland has a strange obsession with horses. When I first arrived here in June, I thought that I was imagining it. I would see a plastic horse here and there and thought to myself, “That’s a bit odd”. But these miniature plastic horses just kept on reappearing all over the city and they were usually tethered to rusty old rings installed in the cities curbs. Well. It’s not just odd but it’s true.
Portland does indeed have an obsession with horses and here’s proof.
Don’t pass up the pony pictures.
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A few glimpses of where I live.
The third image contains a small corner of the apartment building where I live.
Design Blogs that I enjoy very, very much (because they feature such delicious things):
Richard Colman’s work makes me starry-eyed with glee. There is something intensely mystical about his paintings. Do go and have a look at his website.
Fecal Face also interviewed him recently, read it here. In case you haven’t heard of Fecal Face, it’s a web resource for artists and their admirers. I’m a Fecal Face fan through and through!
Some little things make you really happy, like this Mini Wilmer who was handmade by Sandra (AKA Smosch). You’ve got to take a look at Smosch’s Etsy Shop for the surprise that this photo doesn’t show! Go on, take a look. It’s worth it.
Sandra is an incredibly talented illustrator and writes a wonderfully quirky blog with fabulous photography.
As it is Friday, I thought that I would raise my glass to a few fabulous Portland folk. This little guy here, makes me very happy whenever I chance upon him. He graces a garden in my neighborhood and always makes me smirk when I pass by. As for the Portland folk you too should admire, they are:
Liza Rietz and her fabulous new collection of women’s clothes
Carson Ellis and his whimsically wonderful drawings
The Decemberists and their fantastical songs
Have a delightful weekend and don’t forget to welcome in the Autumn, for she is arriving on the 23rd!
A little painting for this week’s Illustration Friday theme, Wedding.
This is totally and completely appropriate for my current status of being in outer orbit – to post my illustration for Illustration Friday one week late. Alas, better late than never!
Certainly one would feel a special sort of momentum when viewing this amazing LED installation by Giancarlo Neri, Massimo Silenzio (in English “Maximum Silence” – don’t forget to use the scroll bar at the bottom of the web-page so that you can see the installation at day AND at night…breathtakingly otherworldly!).
Lately, it seems that I have been floating somewhere in the outer orbit. Then suddenly, a bell will jingle and I get pulled back down to Earth. Needless to say, this feeling has left me a bit disoriented. I just haven’t been feeling quite like myself.
But there is hope. I can feel things shifting in the right direction. And I’m not referring to the appearance of whiskers on my cheeks…
PS
This is an older sketch that I recently revived by coloring it in with my new Neocolors IIs.Â