taking the long way

winter sparkles

christmas in portland

diptychs - part deux

Kaitlyn and I have been busy snapping away all over Oregon and New England to capture daily photos for our diptych experiment (see earlier post for more details). Sometimes we end up snapping photos in places where people wonder what the heck we are doing. A little public humiliation never stopped us before and it won't be stopping us now. Here are a few more diptychs we've created as the first month of our experiment comes to a close.

the word is out

My beautiful hometown of Portland, Oregon is truly rallying behind me and my quest to blog from the Winter Olympic games. And let me tell you it feels amazing!

I've always been the fan, I've always been the one cheering people on so they can fulfill their dream. Now the shoe is on the other foot and I finally understand how much it means to have friends, family and fans, cheer you on. It's breathtaking and truly inspiring to feel this kind of support.

In addition to numerous friends - reaching all the way back to grade school (Yeah Bridlemile!) and the hallowed halls of Wilson High (Go Trojans!) - I just found out that Brian Westbrook, a local radio newscaster (not to be confused with the running back for the Philadelphia Eagles), has picked up my story. Check out his blog! Add to that the support of a local blogger and a local webdesigner who just happened to design the website for this whole contest. Thanks Heather and Chris!

I have to say that I'm truly touched and forever changed by what my friends and family and total strangers have done to help this Oregonian fulfill her dream. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

the diptych experiment

Beginning on November 1, 2009 Kaitlyn Smith, living in Massachusetts, and Laurie Matthews, hailing from Oregon; started taking one photograph a day during the course of their daily lives. Their daily photographs are connected to form diptychs capturing the combination of their daily lives - sometimes showing the similarities and often times showing the contrasts between their lives on the east and west coasts. These are just some of the diptychs they've created. More can be found by clicking the flickr link to the left, a site which will be updated as the experiment continues.

The idea for the diptych is not new. The tradition reaches back centuries into the early days of artistic expression when two panels were attached with a hinge. Attaching two panels or tablets was a way of showing the relationship between two seemingly separate elements. Diptychs also allowed artwork to travel with added protection - folding the two pieces together until a traveler reached their destination. Modern inspirations for the WestEast diptych came from friends and other artists who are creating similar artistic experiments using 21st century technology.

Laurie and Kaitlyn met in Boston in 2005 at a cocktail party featuring a cocktail ice luge and a ton of designers. The best part was that Kaitlyn also met her future husband, Andrew (also a friend of Laurie's), that very same evening. An auspicious night for sure. Kaitlyn and Laurie quickly bonded over their love of the Boston Red Sox.

Now with 3106 miles between them, they devised this way to keep in touch with both the momentous and mundane aspects of their daily lives. Laurie's west coast images are on the left and Kaitlyn's east coast images are on the right. The "12" and "45" correspond to the numbers of their favorite Red Sox players (Mark Bellhorn and Pedro Martinez, respectively), both of whom were members of the 2004 World Series winning team. Go Sox! And enjoy the experiment!

ivy

There are some friends in your life that make a huge difference, who are with you every step of the way, and who brighten your day, month and year. Ivy is that friend. She is so generous and talented and I love her dearly. Now it's my turn to be the friend who makes the difference, who is with her every step to brighten every day. She is undergoing major surgery tonight to remove a cancerous tumor. I am thinking of her and sending her my love, which will soon be followed by warm healing soup, wheat-free pies, and fun trashy magazines. What are friends for?! update: Ivy's surgery went very well with news that the cancer was no where near her lymph nodes. They got it all out, every last bit! Take that cancer!! Ivy and I wine tasting in the Willamette Valley Ivy, Tara and I searching for the perfect apple around Hood River, Oregon Ivy and I traveling through Italy nearly a decade ago... Ivy painting the beautiful hills around Siena, Italia Celebrating spring when we were in graduate school at the University of Oregon

duck halloween smackdown

one for the ducks and one for the red sox

The Red Sox may be done for the season, but the Ducks sure aren't. They beat USC 47 to 20 during a night game at Autzen Stadium under a nearly full moon. Though both teams had nearly equal possession time, the Ducks had 613 yards to the Trojans' 327. Oregon had five touchdowns and four field goals to So Cal's two touchdowns and two field goals. USC didn't score a single point during the 4th quarter in "their worst loss since 1997". Go Ducks! I'm starting to smell the roses!

lawrence halprin

I just found out that Lawrence Halprin died this morning at 8:30 a.m. Coincidentally, I spent yesterday in the parks he designed in Portland which changed the direction of modern landscape architecture. I had no idea this morning when I posted photographs of those parks that he had just passed. The news organizations haven't picked up the story yet, but I hope they capture the influence he had on public spaces and in turn our shared culture. Without him, public open space as we know it would not exist as it does.

pettygrove park

Pettygrove is the second of four parks designed by Lawrence Halprin as part of the Portland Sequence. This park is often forgotten since it's design was less revolutionary than either Forecourt Fountain or Lovejoy Fountain, two of the other parks in the sequence. However, this park has the most ties to the Northwest and the history of park design. Local basalt, deposited here during one of many lava flows that spanned the region thousands of years ago, is crafted into low stone walls which are modeled after those found along the historic Columbia River Gorge Highway. The park's miniature pastoral design recalls the work of Frederick Law Olmsted, especially his design for Central Park. My favorite design feature stems from how the linear elements play off each other - the silver 60s era light standards against the warm brown bark of the shade trees.

day and night

(love the shadows of the pine trees reflected in the fountain's waterfall)

(love this image's depth - from the leaves in the bottom left corner over the top of the fountain's sculptural forms to the distant pine trees)


I'm working on a National Historic Landmark nomination for the Portland Sequence, landscape architect Lawrence Halprin's ground-breaking design for public spaces in Portland. The sequence includes four public parks linked by walkways that were designed to span one of Portland's late 1960s urban renewal projects. While similar urban renewal projects failed in other parts of the country, Portland's has been deemed successful, in many ways because of Halprin's parks.

Forecourt Fountain, the most visible of the four public parks, is turning 40 next year (just like me). While many parks of this era are dated, Forecourt Fountain (also known as Ira Keller Fountain for the man whose vision and political power was at the root of this urban renewal area) remains both modern and relevant. Though many of the forms and concepts are purely born of the late 60s and early 70s, they are also classic enough to transcend time and design fads. Added to that the park is both functional - serving as a place of respite on cooler days and a much needed wading pool on blistering hot days, and beautiful - a sculptural centerpiece both for both day and night.