This Saturday the South Waterfront Sustainable Lifestyle and Transportation Committee is teaming up with SOLV and the City of Portland’s River Renaissance Initiative to clean up the river bank along the Willamette River here in South Waterfront.  If you are interested in helping out please contact Rick at sustainablelifestyle@gmail.com to sign up.

Location: Meet at the Meriwether East Tower (0836 SW Curry St.)

When: Saturday May 16th at 9 AM.

Through a generous donation from Williams & Dame Development and Block 37 Investors, LLC, a temporary site for the South Waterfront Community Garden is born! The residents of South Waterfront worked with Community Relations to plan and construct the garden this spring, resulting in 13 garden beds on the lot south of Atwater Place. The beds are completely full this year, but don’t despair. If you are a South Waterfront resident you can become a Friend of the Community Garden and help out. Contact the Community Relations office at communityrelations@southwaterfront.com for more information.

We will be providing garden updates in both the E-Current and here on the Green Living Blog: stay tuned for more Garden related news and events

Hooray!  The Farmers Markets around Portland are beginning to open up and offer our region’s glorious bounty for our tables at home.  For those of us living here in the South Waterfront we have our pick of many different markets.  On Saturdays we can take the Portland Streetcar up to the South Park blocks for the PSU Farmer’s Market or on Wednesdays to the Downtown Market or on Thursdays we can go to the Ecotrust Market in the Pearl District.

However our closest Farmers Market is just a short tram ride up the hill at OHSU, which begins its season 1 week from today, on Tuesday May 19th.  To find out more about the OHSU Farmer’s Market, please click Here.  Enjoy the markets and help support our local farmers!

…….my itinerary is not in stone yet but I will travel to Brussels for a solo exhibition which opens May 28th.  I will be building a large styrofoam robot on site, and as usual, about half of the entire exhibition will be site specific.  There are several pieces being fabricated and its always a challenge to work in such a way overseas.  I work closely with this particular gallery, Think.21, who understands me and my work intimately enough to negotiate complex production methods - even when I am not there.  I develop drawings and plans, research production methods, and then they source the best fabricator.  “The guy doesn’t even make his own work?” true, in some cases, I seek a level of high production so technically specific it only makes sense to use professional technical crafts people.  I am sure we can find plenty of masters throughout history whom have had their work constructed by teams of assistants, but it does sound odd to some who still only understand art making as a craft exercise.  I am a maker and always will be, but in my practice I continue to believe I can and should use every media, method and technical advantage I can access.

The SWF show is coming right along, and I even have a title.  FLOTSAM.  The random floating debris encountered in the open ocean is referred to as flotsam, not to be confused with jetsom  which is the jettisoned articles a vessel will throw over board prior to running a ground or capsizing.  I imagine our visual culture to be a sea.  A sea filled with Flotsam so thick and dangerous that navigating through it is treacherous.  Imagine the things we see are bumped into, sometimes even attaching themseleves to us, clinging to our consciousness.  The work in this show is synthesized visual flotsam.

SWF’s Art, Culture, Science committee presents resident poet Don Dagg Monday, May 4 from 6:30 - 8 PM In his 20 years writing political, religious and socially conscious poems, Don has been invited to share them at venues across the state, in Canada and Ireland.
It is an honor to have him at our next gathering, where we will have the opportunity to hear his work and engage with him personally.

All South Waterfront residents are welcome for wine, conversation, the sharing of recent artful experiences and, of course, poetry and insights by writer Don Dagg.

6:30 - 8 pm
Atwater Amenities room
Heidi@heidimcbridegallery.com for more information

file:///Users/Home/Documents/SWF%20Blog/dondaggpoem_SWF-ACS.pdf

Join Artist in Residence Michael Salter and his students completing their BFA degree in Digital Arts from the University of Oregon Art Department as they present brief descriptions of their research. Considered to be the generators of our future visual culture, these artists and designers will present their motivations, insights and year-long BFA project thesis. Pizza, pop and junk food will be served.

Featured students on Thursday, April 30:
Zach Rose
Andrew Parnell
Daniel Strong
Mac Schubert
Dustin Dybevik
Peter Baston
Travis Bachmeier

UO/SWF Artist in Residence Student Presentations
Thursday, April 30, 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
AND
Thursday, May 28, 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
John Ross Plaza Studio
3623 SW River Pkwy., Portland, OR  97239 map it

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
RSVP appreciated, but feel free to stop by
RSVP: communityrelations@southwaterfront.com or 503.222.778