First Friday Art Walk

Nope, can’t see Art here! One wonders why the City of Portland did not think to shut down the Arts District part of Congress Street in order to accommodate the 4^th of July crowds that came out to inch worm their way down. Geeez! –Don’t stop to look at the art! –You might get pushed, jabbed, or sneered at for taking a moment to appreciate it. Is this an Art Walk or sidewalk shuffle activity? Still, I continue to be amazed at Portland’s limited vision and thoughtless support of the arts on First Friday. The street was closed down this June but not in July? Its’ the day before the 4^th and one of the month’s where Portland fills with visitors. It was a total disappointment. And, when the street is not shut down it continues to highlight Portland’s disinterest, short sightedness and makes it nothing but a creepy crawl of push and shove, inch by wormy inch!

Went to my first «First Friday» since i moved to my apartment on Congresst St between High and Forest. Really great vendors, very creative items for sale at a variety of prices. From amateur artists to pros, face painters, balloon folders, tarot card readers, and gardeners. Face sketchers and photographers. Jewelry makers etc.
I bought a cactus, a necklace, and the coolest dog collar!

Some of my guilty pleasures include looking inside other people’s refrigerators when I’m visiting and ambling down the middle of a street like a zombie. The latter of the two is something I can get a fix of monthly at Portland’s First Friday Art Walk (an event I rarely miss) when the many galleries of the Arts District open their doors to the public for visual stimulation, social awkwardness, and an abundance of free snacks, seltzer water, cider/​doughnut holes in autumn, and lots (and lots, and lots, and lots) of cheap wine (shamelessly, I admit this is another guilty pleasure of mine).
I also love that the PoPoPo (Portland Police Officers) allow the sidewalks to be inundated with artists and vendors of all kinds. Just about anyone selling anything can set up shop — I’ve even sat outside on a quilt hawking my mom’s pottery wares before. From photographers to jewelers, kids doing self portraits and making beaded bracelets to college students doing tarot readings and break dancing, to black smiths, to taco trucks, to fire jugglers, to protestors, to vaudeville acts that take over Monument Square… you’ll find a little bit of everything, just know that this makes the sidewalks painfully crowded.
Don’t miss:
— ICA at MECA
— MECA
— June Fitzpatrick Gallery
— Space Gallery
— Salt Institute
— Portland Museum of Art (third floor)
— Harmon and Barton’s
— Think Tank
— Portland Public Library
— Local Muscle
Zombies, complimentary wine, street performers, and art that sometimes rocks (thousands of small stick figure people climbing hot air balloons to escape the apocalypse) and sometimes is confusing (red chickens errrrrywhere)… what’s not to love?