Oregon Hikers

We did an early Sunday walk on the inner east side looking for street art. I gave Andrew's two boys a map marked with Xs, and we tracked down 50 + pieces in an area bordered by Water Avenue to the west, 14th to the east, Ankeny to the north, and Madison to the south. We began at the giant tiger on the side of Hair of the Dog and sort of looped around with many diversions. The sweet spot is near Base Camp around 11th and Stark, but the murals are scattered all over.

Many of these murals were done under the auspices of Forest for the Trees (fftt), which sponsors an event every year where walls are painted or repainted by artists from all over the country as well as international. There are local artists, such as Klutch, who have taken a lead role. Some of them have never done street art before while others were born and bred in the genre. Most of what we saw was “approved” street art at designated sites. To some purists, this is a denigration of what proper street art is, i.e. itinerant, impermanent, and totally illegal, and they have felt free, in places, to tag over the approved works (I would say, however, that the Portlandia rebels are way more polite than graffiti outlaws on other continents). Some of what we saw will not be there next year; a few of the sites are “rotating walls" that get painted over regularly.

Sunday is the best day to go if you want to take pictures; otherwise, there are a lot of parked cars in front of many of these.

This is just a sampling:

That first one shall be known as "the hair of the dog tiger and bird", which sounds like utter nonsense to those not in the know.

that makes no sense - I see no dog and birds don't have hair

city walks are good, interesting stuff to look at in a different way than wilderness

Super cool! There's some really neat art out there.

Now Chip Down has to explain . . . Here if it's family friendly, PM if it's in the gutter . . .

I had no idea most of that existed. Quite interesting actually. Thanks.

bobcat wrote:Now Chip Down has to explain . . . Here if it's family friendly, PM if it's in the gutter . . .

Bobcat, I'd understand if anybody else inquired, but surely you know that The Guardian is on the building that houses Hair of the Dog Brewing, hence "the hair of the dog tiger and bird".

But I do think it's charming that you're encouraging me to send you non-family-friendly PMs.

Well, yes, I actually wrote that in my description, so I thought you might have had some much more arcane, mystical, or perhaps salacious reference you were hinting at. Hair of the dog tiger it is then!

bobcat wrote: I thought you might have had some much more arcane, mystical, or perhaps salacious reference you were hinting at.

Nah, I'm pretty boring actually.

I too was hoping for some more family unfriendly explanation